By Ryan Robinson
The Intelligencer Journal/New Era
LANCASTER, Pa. — A new hero saved a Vietnam War-era hero Monday morning during a house fire in Lancaster Township.
Fire broke out in an attached garage at 420 Spencer Ave. at about 3 a.m., township fire Chief Ron Comfort said. The blaze then extended into the second floor of the home.
Neighbors rescued three people from the dwelling before firefighters arrived, he said.
Alan Wert, 43, rushed into the burning home to get Richard Reynolds, 81, a Vietnam War veteran who uses a wheelchair.
Wert found Reynolds and carried him out the front door to safety while flames were engulfing the back of the single-family home.
“He scooped me up and took me down the steps and out of the house,” Reynolds said, showing with his own hands how the feat was performed. “I was glad, because I am paralyzed on my left side and can’t walk.”
Wert, who is well over 6 feet tall and built like a football lineman, said, “It was adrenaline.
“I took him as far as I could away from the fire, and then it hit me — he is heavy.”
Reynolds’ wife, Kieu, 75, and son, Lee, got out of the house safely on their own after they were awakened by Wert and his wife, Kelly.
There’s no way of knowing if the Reynoldses would have gotten out safely without their neighbors’ help, Steve Roy, assistant fire chief at Lancaster Township Fire Company, said.
“I think it would have been close,” he said.
The two smoke detectors in the house were on the opposite end of the building from the fire, Roy said.
“By the time there was enough smoke to put them off, it would have been a lot more difficult to get them out,” he said. “The fire was really getting going. It could have exploded into the house very quickly.”
The Reynoldses were asleep in the home when the fire struck.
Next door, Autumn Wert, 18, and a friend were busy packing a car for a trip to the beach when the friend noticed smoke, the Werts said. The friend asked Autumn if her neighbors were having a bonfire.
They quickly figured out that it was a house fire, called 911 and yelled for Autumn’s parents.
Alan and Kelly Wert went straight outside to help. They knew Richard Reynolds used a wheelchair to get around.
“We were banging on the door and ringing the door bell,” Kelly said.
Mrs. Reynolds opened the door.
“Your house is on fire! There’s a lot of smoke!” Kelly said she told her.
Mrs. Reynolds got out safely on her own, and Kelly screamed for Lee Reynolds: “Lee, Lee, your house is on fire!”
Lee also got out safely without assistance.
While that was happening, Kelly — who knew the layout of the home because she had been inside it one time several years earlier — led her husband to Richard Reynolds’ bedroom. Alan then carried the elderly Reynolds from the home.
“He’s a hero,” Tuyen Tran, another Reynolds family member, said of Alan.
Tran then pointed to Alan and Kelly Wert, saying, “This is the dynamic duo.”
About 40 firefighters from area departments responded to the blaze, fire officials said.
“There was heavy fire pushing out of the back of the house,” Comfort said. The blaze was brought under control in about an hour.
The cause of the fire was undetermined, but it was not suspicious, state police Fire Marshal James DeWalt said.
Damage to the home, its contents and two vehicles totaled about $50,000, he said. Much of the damage was to a framed-out storage room in the garage, where the fire started.
American Red Cross of the Susquehanna Valley is assisting the Reynolds family with lodging for a few days, and then they will stay with relatives until the home can be repaired, they said.
After the firefighters had left Monday morning, Richard Reynolds sat outside in his wheelchair, talking with his life-saving neighbor about the fire.
Wert, a disc jockey and music producer, reluctantly posed for a photo for the newspaper.
He said he was more interested in talking about Reynolds, who served multiple tours as a combat medic.
“He is a decorated Vietnam War veteran,” Wert boasted. “He was more calm than I was.”
Copyright 2010 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.