Volunteer saves woman in fire
Published: April 20, 2006
Paul Shetlar’s 16 years of volunteering as a Meals on Wheels driver went largely unnoticed before he pulled up to a home in the 2200 block of East Mossman on Wednesday morning.
Wichita fire officials said Shetlar’s concern about a 79-year-old client probably ended up saving her life when he pulled her from the smoke-filled house, near Murdock and I-135.
When Shetlar got to the front door shortly after 10 a.m., he said he heard a smoke alarm but saw no signs of fire.
When he couldn’t get the woman to come to the door, he said he went next door to the home of another Meals on Wheels client.
Shetlar and the second client returned to the woman’s house and eventually heard her faint cries for help through a window in the back.
After persuading the disoriented woman to open the window, Shetlar removed a screen and pulled her to safety. He went back to the neighbor’s house to call 911.
Wichita fire battalion chief Rob Hughes said firefighters quickly extinguished the small kitchen fire but he said it caused about $10,000 in smoke damage. The woman was hospitalized for observation after suffering from smoke inhalation, he said.
Hughes said he’d heard about the rescue by the Meals on Wheels volunteer but said he never got a chance to talk to him. By the time they fire crews got the fire out, he said the volunteer was gone.
“I had four routes left to run,” Shetlar said. “There was nothing more to do there.”
Shetlar began volunteering for Meals on Wheels after retiring from the U.S. Postal Service in 1990. For a while, he said, he bowled one day during the week and delivered meals on the other four. He said he eventually gave up the bowling league.
“The way I bowled, I figured I might as well be delivering five days a week,” he said.
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