SF man who heroically saved 2 lives from burning building honored

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A San Francisco man who rushed into a burning apartment building to rescue two people trapped by smoke and fire is being honored with a Carnegie Medal for his heroic action, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission announced Thursday.

Josué Alfredo Contreras was working as a bouncer at a Mission District bar when he smelled smoke and heard someone scream from across the street, “My parents live up there!” according to fire officials. A large blaze had broken out on the second and third floors of a four-story apartment building at 3017 20th Street.

Contreras immediately dashed into the burning building and up three floors to find 67-year-old Reina Alvarado and her husband, 71-year-old Rene Alvarado, trapped by thick smoke. Reina was near the stairwell, and Contreras first pulled her out of danger down the stairs and out of the building.

Contreras again entered the building engulfed in flames and ran up the stairs to find Rene sitting on his bed. While pulling Rene from the smoke- and fire-filled room, Contreras became disoriented and lost his breath. After relocating the stairs, Contreras carried the man down to safety.

Neither of the Alvarados was injured. Contreras recovered from the smoke inhalation without further medical treatment.

Contreras’ heroic actions came before any firefighters arrived at the scene, then San Francisco Fire Department Deputy Chief of Operations Robert Postel said while awarding him with a Certificate of Appreciation in February 2023. Postel explained that through Contreras’ selfless rescues, firefighters were able to immediately begin attacking the rapidly spreading fire instead of placing all resources into a rescue effort.

“Fire doubles in size every minute,” Postel said. “If he hadn’t taken the action he took, not only would those two lives possibly have been lost, but there would have been much more extensive damage to the exposure buildings on either side.”

Contreras humbly told the San Francisco Fire Commission in 2023 that he was “raised by two good parents” and happened to be there “at the right time.”

The Carnegie Medal of Heroism is awarded in the U.S. and Canada to “those who risk death or serious physical injury to an extraordinary degree while saving or attempting to save the lives of others,” according to the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. “More than $40 million has been given to more than 10,000 awardees or their survivors over the life of the Fund,” which began in 1904.