A Lakeside woman has two neighbors to thank for pulling her out of her burning home -- an off-duty CHP officer and his teenage daughter.
Smoke and charred remains are all that's left of Unit 78. Fire tore up the double wide at the Willow Brook Mobile Home Estates around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Sally Brotherton, a known smoker, received serious burns in the fire and is hospitalized at the UCSD Medical Center’s Burn Unit where she will likely be treated for several weeks. She was listed in critical condition Wednesday evening.
“She's going to be put into a medically-induced coma. I guess, deep sleep, to make her more comfortable,” said Brotherton’s son-in-law Alan Moote who arrived at the home just after Brotherton was taken to the hospital.
The fire was so intense before firefighters arrived that Brotherton likely would not have survived if it weren’t for a neighbor.
California Highway Patrol Officer D.I. Coney, who was off-duty at the time, learned about the fire from his 15-year old daughter.
Coney went inside the home, found a woman collapsed on the floor and helped her out of the home to safety.
The woman and the officer were transported to UCSD Medical Center's Burn Unit with minor burns and smoke inhalation, according to the CHP.
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According to Lakeside Fire Department, had Officer Coney not been there to pull her to safety, she would have more than likely succumbed to the fire.
Fire investigators believe the cause of the fire was cigarette smoking but are still investigating whether an oxygen tank was also being used at the time.
