Chandler woman saves her 6 children from blaze

Ana Herrera knew she had to run back into her burning mobile home. Although the single mother stayed calm after rustling five of her children from their sleep early Wednesday in Chandler and leading them through plumes of thick smoke and raging flames, Herrera noticed someone was missing.

SLIDESHOW: Chandler mom and her six children escape burning home

“I couldn’t find my little girl,” Herrera said Wednesday afternoon, tears welling in her eyes. “I got the others out, but she was still sleeping. I had to save her. In my head, all I thought about was her and my kids.”

Herrera went back into her home in the Greentree Manufactured Home Community at 301 N. Ithica St., near Chandler Boulevard and McQueen Road, and found 5-year-old Ana Montano fast asleep. Herrera woke her, broke windows to clear the smoke, and rushed her daughter to safety.

“I was sleeping, and my mom woke me up,” said 13-year-old Byron Montano, Herrera’s eldest child. “My mom ran back to get my sister (Ana) and got cut on her hand. She saved her. She was yelling at all of us to get out because the flames were coming fast. She saved all of us.”

Herrera, 29, is credited with saving her six children and two dogs as the fire consumed their mobile home.

Herrera, a housekeeper, said she was startled by an unfamiliar feeling about 2 a.m. Wednesday.

“I was sleeping, and I felt hot in my face,” Herrera said. “When I looked at the window, the air conditioner was on fire. The kids were sleeping with me. I just started kicking everybody up. There was a lot of smoke. I couldn’t see. I was scared.”

Herrera first tried to rouse the children who were sharing her room in the three-bedroom mobile home — Marianna Herrera, 4, Jolie Montano. 7, and Luis Herrera, 2. She brought them to the living room, then went to wake Byron, who alerted his 11-yearold sister, Rosa Montano.

“Then I grabbed Luis and brought him out front with the other kids,” Herrera said. “I went outside, and that’s when I didn’t see Ana. I just had to go back in. The dogs ran out, too.”

Dan Couch, battalion chief for the Chandler Fire Department, said crews responded to the call shortly after 2 a.m. The structure was engulfed in flames, and it took firefighters about 15 minutes to put out the blaze, Couch said, adding it did not spread to other mobile homes.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, but its point of origin was near the air conditioner, Couch said.

“We found multiple electrical cords plugged into outlets throughout the house,” he said. “That probably didn’t cause the fire. But it was a fire waiting to happen.”

There were no smoke detectors in the home, according to Couch and Herrera.

“In mobile homes, smoke detectors are very critical,” Couch said. “Mobile homes are very combustible. They burn quick and hot.”

Couch did laud Herrera for her quick thinking and reaction.

“The mom’s actions were pretty heroic,” Couch said. “This could easily have been seven fatalities. She was apparently in smoke up to her ankles. She saved the kid, herself and their two dogs.”

When asked if she considered herself a hero, Herrera thought for a moment and replied: “I think so. I saved my kids. That was all that was going through my mind. I don’t even remember how it all happened.”

Herrera and her children were taken to the Arizona Burn Center at Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix for observation and treatment of possible smoke inhalation. No one was hurt beyond Herrera’s cut hand, although Marieanna’s hair was singed slightly, according to her mother.

She said she isn’t sure where the family will live when it leaves the hospital.

“I’ve been strong. I’ve been a single mother and try to do everything I can for my kids,” Herrera said. “I work hard for them. I think I’ll come out of this OK. Everything we have is almost gone, but we will be OK. We still have each other.”

If you want to donate

Donations are being collected for Ana Herrera and her six children, whose mobile home in Chandler was destroyed by fire early Wednesday morning. For information, contact Trinity Christian Fellowship and its Spanish ministry, Companerismo Cristiano Trinidad, at www.tcfchandler.org, 50 S. McQueen Road, Chandler, AZ , 85225, or Post Office Box 1478 Chandler, AZ 85244, or (480) 963-7698. Someone will be available to accept donations at the McQueen Road address from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday.