By Ben Hackman and Brad Rhen
The Lebanon Daily News (Pennsylvania)

LEBANON, Pa. — A 21-year-old woman was in an induced coma last night at the Lehigh Valley Hospital Burn Center after she fell while being rescued from the third floor of a burning building in Lebanon, the woman's mother said.

Eleanor Laguer said her daughter, Maritsa Mantialla, suffered third-degree burns to her back, legs, stomach and arms and fractured her skull and vertebrae in the early morning blaze that killed a man and injured four others. Laguer said the burns covered about 20 percent of her daughter's body.

Meanwhile, the paid firefighter rescuing her, 37-year-old Mike Daub, suffered four broken pelvic bones, including a fractured lower vertebra, in the fall.

It was unknown if the injuries will require surgery, Daub said yesterday afternoon from his room in the Hershey Medical Center. He said he never lost any movement or sensation in any body parts. Despite medication, he was still in extreme pain yesterday afternoon.

Daub, who was working out of Lebanon's Station 2 at Ninth and Mifflin streets, was among the firefighters who responded to the fire at 35 S. Ninth St. shortly after 3:30 a.m.

After arriving on the scene, firefighters set up a ladder to the third floor, where Mantialla was trapped by flames in her apartment. Daub climbed up to help the woman down.

He said the woman climbed out the window onto the ladder, and he positioned himself just below her to assist her.

"She started to come down on her own, and when she got around the second-floor windows, that's where the flames were coming out, and I guess it was too hot, and she just let go," he said.

Daub estimated they fell about 15 to 20 feet to the sidewalk below.

Laguer remembered it this way: "Basically, she jumped into his arms. She was trapped for a while. She was screaming. She was running from one window to another. I guess her air-conditioner exploded.

"She jumped out, ... they fell back, and she landed on top of him."

Mantialla was living in a third-floor apartment with her husband, Manuel. They had lived there about three months.

"They're not even married a year yet," Laguer said. "They just moved out of a little efficiency to a one-bedroom apartment so they could have a little more room."

Laguer said she has not been able to speak to her daughter since the incident because Mantialla is in a coma. She was listed in critical but stable condition, Laguer said.

"It's unbelievable to look at your child like that," she said tearfully. "I can't even tell you what I feel. People should know that people did lose their lives and were hurt by this, and it's really destroying.

"We are very thankful to officer Daub," she added. "He saved our daughter's life."

Daub pointed out that incidents like this are a danger that comes with the job.

"It's in the back of your mind, but you hope it never happens," he said. "If it wasn't me, it would have been somebody else."

A city police officer suffered smoke inhalation when he went to help Daub and Mantialla, Mayor Bob Anspach said.

Neversink fire Chief Ed Eisenhour, meanwhile, was injured when he fell down a flight of stairs, Anspach said. Eisenhour was released after treatment at the Good Samaritan Hospital.

"He appears to be back in the saddle and ready to go again," the mayor said yesterday.

Copyright 2008, The Lebanon Daily News (Pennsylvania)