Neighbor Saves Woman From Her Burning Laguna Beach House

LAGUNA BEACH (CBSLA.com) — A woman is alive, thanks to a fast-acting neighbor who pulled her out of her burning house in Laguna Beach Thursday night.

Flames broke out in the 3,000-square-foot home around 7 p.m. in the 1200 block of La Mirada Street.

Before firefighters arrived, Joey Sammut said, he heard fire alarms going off and a friend of the woman inside screaming. So, he ran into the burning house but could not see the woman because the house was filled with smoke.

He kept asking her to come out. "I can't even see her. I go: 'Come out, come out!' I hear her screaming like something out of a horror movie. I grabbed her, and she starts fighting with me, saying she wants to go back for her birds. I said: 'Hey, let's forget about your birds. Let's worry about you right now,' " Sammut said.

Sammut did finally pull her to safety as fire crews arrived. She is expected to be OK. But firefighters said her birds probably had perished.

It took firefighters more than an hour to knock down the flames.