Fla. Men Recall Dramatic Rescue Attempt

Crawling through the smoke and flames, Christian Valiente searched for the woman trapped in her burning Bonita Springs home Tuesday morning.

"I was calling for the lady. She was responding. I found the door she was in. I was banging on it," said Valiente, a landscaper who was working across the street when the fire erupted. "I was like 'Ma'am, you need to lay down. I'm here to get you out. You have to get out.'"

Valiente ran out of the home, his skin steaming, and knocked out the woman's window with his hand. He climbed in. It was too late.

The woman, identified by family members and property appraiser records as Shirley Corrigan, 75, was killed after the blaze erupted inside her 27567 Dortch Ave. home, which housed four generations of her family. Their pet pitbull, Nilla, also was killed.

Two family members — Corrigan's granddaughter Kristy Phillips, 36, and 2-year-old granddaughter, Kristiana — escaped.

"My mom is in there. She couldn't get down the hallway fast enough to get out," said Kimberly Phillips, Corrigan's daughter, who was working at 7-Eleven at the time of the fire. "My daughter tried getting her, but it was too smoky. My dog stayed right with my mom."

Bonita Springs firefighters received a 911 call about the fire at 8:42 a.m. and were on scene by 8:47 a.m. When they arrived the home was engulfed in heavy smoke and flames, Chief Joseph Daigle said. Family members and bystanders told them Corrigan was still inside.

"They dove through the window under heavy smoke and fire conditions and did a primary search," he said. "During that primary search they did find a pet there, a dog. ... Then they were beat back by heavy smoke and flames."

Kristy Phillips said she was feeding her daughter eggs and watching television in a back room when the fire erupted.

"I smelled smoke coming from another room in the house. ... I smelled plastic burning. I come running out of the room and the flames and the smoke hit me in the face," Kristy Phillips said. "I grabbed my baby. I went to grab my grandma. I couldn't find her and I couldn't help her."

The Bonita firefighters were not the first people who ran into the fiery house.

Jameson Gray, 29, and Valiente, 21, were working at a home across the street for a local landscaping company, Scott Gray Lawn Service, when they saw and smelled clouds of smoke.

Gray and Valiente ran toward the fire, along with neighbors Jason Barnes, 23, and Mark Higginson, 53. Gray recalled seeing Kristy Phillips out in the street crying for help.

"She said 'My mother is in the house. My mother is in the house.' And (Valiente) and I just went boom, right inside the house, right through the front door of the house," Gray said. "He's on his hands and knees crawling around. He's going for the lady screaming bloody murder in the house. I grabbed the kid inside by the front door. She was sitting crouched on the ground. I grabbed the kid and brung the kid outside, brung it to the lady on the phone.

"It's people's souls alive, man."

After busting out the window, Valiente said he called for Corrigan, but she didn't respond. He could hear her dog whining. He went in.

"I was shuffling around on the floor," he said. "I couldn't find the dog. I was getting cut more than anything. So I just proceeded to look around a little further, and then the police officer told me to get out. He pulled me out and dragged me out and told me we had to leave."

It was scary, Valiente said. He wishes he could have done more.

Daigle said all of the men who rushed to help, without firefighting gear, are heroes.

"When you have something like that happening in front of you, instead of not do anything, it says something to the character of the people who decide to take action to help somebody," he said. "Their first reaction was to heed the call of somebody needing help."

Lee County Property Appraiser records show the three-bedroom, two-bath wood-frame home was built in 1959. It is owned by Corrigan and Kimberly Phillips, who purchased it in 1997. The home is a total loss, Daigle said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation by the State Fire Marshal's Office and the Lee County Arson Taskforce. The Red Cross is assisting the family.

There were seven fatal fires in Collier and Lee counties combined in 2015, up from five in 2014, according to the State Fire Marshal's Office.

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