NCO risks life for neighbors during house fire

If your neighbor's house was on fire, would you run inside?

Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Ramanna didn't hesitate to do just that. Ramanna, who lived in the Sandy Basin housing area until a PCS move earlier this month, was at home at around noon on Aug. 2 when his 12-year-old daughter, Carmen, came home with an urgent message. She had been walking the family dog when she spotted smoke coming from a house not far from the Ramanna home. The smoke alarm was going off in that house, Carmen noted.

Immediately, Ramanna ran down the street to see if he could be of help. Three houses away, there was indeed a house on fire, and it turned out that Ramanna was very familiar with the family who lived there. It was the home of Sgt. Maj. Michael Contreras, lead team sergeant major for Operations Group's Scorpion team, the team to which Ramanna had been assigned.

Despite the flames engulfing the house, Ramanna broke a window and entered, concerned for the safety of the family. Moving from room to room, Ramanna found no one. The sole occupants were the Contreras family's two dogs, a three-month-old Labrador retriever puppy and a boxer. Ramanna grabbed the dogs and ran back outside. Meanwhile, first responders, including the Fort Irwin Fire Department, had arrived on the scene. Ramanna's wife had called 911 after he ran out of their house, and Contreras, whose wife had been visiting him at his office, received phone calls from one of his Soldiers, alerting him that his house was on fire.

"I didn't believe him at first, but then Ramanna called me and said my house was on fire," Contreras said. "I dropped what I was doing and ran back to the house."

After about an hour, firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze. Contreras knew his family was safe -- neither his wife nor his two sons, who are 5 years and 20 months old, had been in the house at the time of the fire. But all of the family's belongings were destroyed, and the house was damaged badly enough that they could no longer live in it. They have since been relocated to another house in Sandy Basin.

That no one was injured was largely a matter of luck, Contreras said. The children were not at home and his wife had left the house only about 10 minutes before the fire started. But, he said he is confident Ramanna wouldn't have hesitated to save his family had they been inside.

"I'm indebted to him for life," Contreras said. "I'm convinced that he was going to save my family, at his own risk and complete disregard for his own safety. That's just the kind of person he is."

The Ramanna family was honored for its actions during a ceremony at Fort Irwin Aug. 8. Ramanna was awarded the Army Commendation Medal and presented with a coin from the Fort Irwin Fire Department. Carmen received a certificate of achievement from Scorpion Team, and she, along with her mother and two sisters, were presented with coins from Scorpion Team.

Ramanna said at the ceremony that he doesn't consider himself a hero.

"I would do it again," he said. "I'm glad to have been able to help them out like that."

While Ramanna's actions could have saved the Contreras family, and did save their two dogs, Fort Irwin's fire chief, Ray Smith, said the fire department doesn't generally advise running into burning buildings.

"He could have potentially effected a rescue before we got there, but often people who run into buildings (on fire) don't make it back out," Smith said. "Fortunately, the fire hadn't progressed to that stage."

The cause of the fire is under investigation. Some information for this article was contributed by Capt. Hassan Kagoni.