An off-duty Bend firefighter is being credited for saving a woman from a burning house. Jared Hopper, 28, has worked with Bend Fire Department for three years. According to a news release from the Oregon State Firefighter’ Council, Hopper was off-duty Friday morning and on his way to his second job when he saw heavy smoke billowing out of a house on Mariposa Avenue in Prineville. A distressed neighbor alerted him that there was a disabled woman who lived in the home.
Hopper ran into the smoke filled home and found a woman with a broken foot and lifted her into her wheelchair. He made his way out before the home became uninhabitable. After pushing her across the street Hopper made sure the woman was ok and didn’t need medical treatment for smoke inhalation.
Crook County Fire & Rescue and Prineville Police responded around 10 a.m. to the fire, which was contained to the garage. Hopper gives credit to the neighbor, who was the first on scene and called 911. The neighbor went into the house and closed all the doors to the garage, which helped keep the fire mostly isolated to the garage, Hopper said.
Hopper is grateful he was driving by as the smoke started to spread. He was in his truck on the way to his second job, a concrete business, Hopper Concrete Pumping.
