Add The California Post on Google A Friday fire at a Glendale assisted living facility put six elderly residents’ lives at risk — but two young brothers are now being credited with rushing into the burning home and helping save them from the blaze.
Alex Bazinyan, 20, and his 15-year-old brotherm Narek, live near the assisted living facility in the 1800 block of Mountain Street when flames erupted 4:45 p.m. Before firefighters arrived, flames and thick smoke were already pouring from the home.
“I ran outside and I was looking at the front door when I saw the nurse outside and she was screaming for help,” Alex told KTLA of the moment he realized people were trapped inside.
Narek said he initially grabbed a hose to try to fight the fire, but the flames only grew and the screams for help got louder. That’s when the brothers decided to charge inside.
There were reportedly eight people inside the home, two of them nurses. The nurses were struggling to evacuate the elderly residents to safety, the brothers said.
“I go inside this big room and I see all these old people on the floor with catheters,” Alex said. “Some people were injured, had blood on their legs. We just took everybody out one by one.”
Thanks to two more neighbors who ran over to help, all six seniors made it out to the front lawn before fire crews arrived. The rescue remained perilous until the end — Alex said he heard an explosion right after pulling the last person out of the home.
“As I’m looking around, I just see flames going up and coming towards me,” Narek said of the rescue. “I tried bringing everyone out as fast as I could. There was smoke everywhere. I was pretty much blinded by the smoke.”
The Glendale Fire Department chief told KTLA that an oxygen tank likely exploded, causing part of the home to collapse. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Firefighters eventually extinguished the flames before any other houses were affected, and seven people suffered minor injuries.
The brothers said it was simply their gut reaction to run toward the danger and help their neighbors.
“It’s that instinct of whenever you see people in need, you want to help them out,” Alex said. “You don’t really think about who it is. We have a really tight-knit community here.”
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