Part of a large development burned near our house yesterday; it was the biggest fire in San Jose in thirty years. In the midst of the gawking and some frayed tempers at traffic diversions, people took care of each other.
At every turn, strangers came to one another's aid. Samuel Velazquez, 26, and his brother Alejandro, 25, were just sitting down to eat lunch at their Huff Avenue apartment when they heard an explosion and ran outside to investigate. Seeing flames and smoke coming from the rooftop of an adjacent apartment complex, the brothers quickly connected three garden hoses, then hoisted each other up two flights of balconies.
In their bare feet, the pair tried hosing down the burning rooftop for 20 minutes before abandoning their rescue attempt. They then began knocking on doors, yelling for residents to run for safety.
``I just thought of my kids and knew that if it was my house, I would have wanted someone to help me, too,'' Samuel said later. ``I was just concerned about getting people out of that building.''
Help seemed to come out of nowhere.
``I saw the explosion up at Santana Row and could see the flames from my back yard,'' Sandy Yeager said. ``I wasn't too concerned at first, but then I looked down the street to my right and saw a fire on the next street over.''
She was afraid her roof would catch on fire, but with two small children to care for, Yeager couldn't grab a hose like everyone else. Just then, she said, two strangers appeared -- and grabbing a hose, they started watering down Yeager's Huff Avenue home.
