Two MH police officers OK after treatment for smoke
inhalation
Three people, including two Morgan Hill police officers, were overcome by smoke Wednesday evening at a house fire in the downtown while the officers were saving the third victim’s life.
Criminal charges are pending against the third victim who, police said, will be charged with setting the fire.
Officers Gary Smith and Erin McNish were taken to Saint Louise Regional Hospital, treated and released, according to MHPD Sgt. Dave Myers. Both officers were commended on Thursday for pulling a woman from the fire.
“They appear to be fine,” Myers said Thursday. Both officers were on regularly scheduled days off Thursday and Friday.
Odessa Taboada, 34, of 115-A Warren Ave., was also treated, but booked into a psychiatric holding cell at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, waiting charges of arson, assault with a deadly weapon and spousal abuse to be filed, Myers said.
Police were on the scene, having been called to the house earlier because of a domestic disturbance. Officers were interviewing a man who said his girlfriend, Taboada, had broken glassware and tried to cut him with a knife. While the man was being interviewed outside the house, Taboada set fire to the couch. The man, Myers said, was not hurt in the altercation.
The incident remains under investigation.
The fire was reported at 6:43 p.m.
Santa Clara County Fire Department Capt. Gregg Berryman said his Dunne/Hill engine unit was at Butterfield Boulevard and Main Avenue when they got the call. Warren Avenue is located west from Del Monte Avenue between West First and West Second streets.
Berryman said two people lived in duplex A, a man and Taboada, who was carried from the burning house by police and cared for by paramedics until she could be taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Three people lived in the nextdoor duplex, Berryman said. They were not injured. He said he had called the Red Cross 10 times trying to find overnight accommodations for the residents of duplex B but, as of 8:30 p.m., no one had answered the phone.
The estimated fire loss damage to duplex A was $70,000 and $20,000 to contents. Any losses to duplex B were unknown Thursday morning.
Smith and McNish were commended in writing Thursday for rescuing Taboada, said MHPD Lt. Joe Sampson.
“This was a great, heroic action,” Sampson said. “They kicked the door in, found her unconscious and lying only a few feet from the flames. They pulled her outside to safety before firefighters arrived. This is an excellent show of courage in the line of duty.”
SCCFD Capt. Dennis Johnsen, the department’s arson and bomb investigator, was on the scene investigating until midnight.
“Those police officers did a very dangerous and brave thing,” Johnsen said. “The smoke was down to 2-feet above the floor; they definitely saved her life.”
“The city was covered,” Berryman said. “Off duty firefighters staffed the El Toro Station and a unit from Los Gatos covered Dunne/Hill (while both units were busy with the Warren Avenue fire).” The fire, he said, was brought under control by 7:20 p.m. and the “all-clear” was sounded at 7:42.
