Off-duty firefighter helped rescue 2 people trapped in burning home

Firefighters are never truly off duty, according to Tim Dierolf.

Even if if they don't have their truck or gear when they happen upon an emergency scene they'll be quick to help however they can, he said.

And that's what the volunteer firefighter from Boyertown did recently on Elm Street in Reading, where he guided two people from a smoke and flame filled row home onto a roof and helped save their lives.

Dierolf, 60, a former Reading firefighter, was headed to the NAPA Auto Parts store on North Fourth Street for his job when he smelled smoke in the neighborhood Oct. 12 about 11 a.m.

“I knew there was a fire, and that I was real close,'” he said.

So Dierolf got back in his car and found the fire fast. A three-story home at 407 Elm St. had smoke pouring from the downstairs windows due to a kitchen fire, he said.

Dierolf gave this account:

He called 9-1-1 as he parked, ran to the house and began pounding on the doors to help get everyone out. He alerted the neighbors to get out as well.

Dierolf saw a woman leave the burning home, then a man, but both kept going back in to help others still inside.

Because neither spoke English, it was difficult for Dierolf to communicate to them how dangerous it was to reenter, but he showed them his phone so they could see he'd called 9-1-1 and used hand signals to urge them to stay outside as help was on the way.

A third person came out of the house — a man wearing a black shirt — and he spoke a little English.

“I told him he can't go back inside. He could never hold his breath that long,” Dierolf said.

Dierolf learned from him that a man and woman were still on the third floor. Dierolf knew that if they opened the door from that third floor and tried to come down the interior stairs, they'd quickly be overcome with smoke and deadly gases.

“I told him they wouldn't survive, and I told him that I'm a firefighter so I know what I'm talking about,” he said.

Dierolf told the man in the black shirt to yell up at the couple from outside the back of the house to the third-story window that they must instead climb out onto the second-floor roof.

“I told him he had to make that happen,” Dierolf said. “Time was of the essence.”

The man did convince them to get out on the roof, and from there Dierolf directed them to a connected roof on the neighbor's house where they'd be farther from the fire.

BEN HASTY — MEDIANEWS GROUP Former Reading firefighter Tim Dierolf happened to be in the neighborhood when a fire broke out Oct. 12 at 407 Elm St. He is credited with directing two people trapped on the third floor to safety.