Modesto police, paramedics rescue woman from kitchen fire

Police officers and paramedics over the weekend carried a bedridden woman out of her home before firefighters arrived to extinguish a kitchen fire.

Robert Beall, 71, said he started a pot of beans Saturday afternoon but turned on the wrong burner under a skillet. He left the house in the 900 block of Sunrise Avenue to buy meat and returned 20 minutes later to find ambulances, firetrucks and patrol cars at his house.

Beall said his niece and a caretaker tried to wheel his 94-year-old wife, Nellie J. Smith, out the front door in her hospital bed but couldn’t get through the door.

Paramedics and Modesto police officers arrived before firefighters, said Modesto Fire Department spokeswoman Jessica Smart. She said they carried Smith out of the home on her mattress.

Firefighters extinguished the fire, which was contained to the stove, and used fans to clear the house of smoke.

Smith, her niece and the caretaker were taken by ambulance to local hospitals for observation due to smoke inhalation, Smart said.

Beall said his wife and the caretaker returned home the same day, but his niece remains hospitalized due to other health problems exacerbated by the smoke inhalation.

This story was originally published April 13, 2015 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Modesto police, paramedics rescue woman from kitchen fire."