A woman died in the hospital Tuesday afternoon after a house fire despite rescue efforts by deputies and firefighters to pull her from the burning home.
Two Orange County sheriff's deputies were at the scene of a blaze in the 21800 block of Todd Avenue in Yorba Linda about 9:50 a.m., according to the Orange County Fire Authority.
They arrived before firefighters and saw a man struggling in front of the house. The man, 56, told deputies his 90-year-old mother was upstairs.
"He was saying, 'My mother is inside, my mother is inside, she's upstairs, she's upstairs," OC Sheriff's Deputy Robert Miranda said. "(He was) just kind of in shock."
The deputies tried to get inside the house from the front, but the smoke was too thick. Miranda knocked in windows while a second deputy moved to a back entrance.
"I was trying to see which bedroom she might be in because there were three windows to the rear of the house," OC Sheriff's Deputy Zack Bieker said.
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He broke a window and even climbed on the roof to try to get to the woman, but the smoke was still too heavy.
"As soon as our firefighters got off the engine, the deputies were saying we have a patient upstairs," OC Fire Capt. Steve Concialdi said. "Downstairs was already on fire and smoke was going upstairs."
Firefighters helped Bieker and Miranda pull the woman from the burning home. Once they got the woman outside, she was not breathing and had burns on her body.
The woman died a few hours later while her son was treated for burns and smoke inhalation.
The deputies were also temporarily hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
