Raquel Gutierrez doesn’t remember passing out, or her little sister and Denver firefighters pulling her out of her grandmother’s burning home last week.
When she woke up two days later in the burn unit at University of Colorado Hospital, she learned that Denver Fire Lt. Richard Montoya, one of the firefighters who helped save her life, was in critical condition.
On Sunday, she asked her doctor again how Montoya was doing.
“They told me the firefighter died,” she said today, crying and taking deep breaths with the help of oxygen tubes in her nose. “There is no way to put it into words.”
Montoya, 61, was two months away from retirement when he was critically injured. He was removed from life support on Sunday morning.
The funeral mass for Montoya will be at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 1530 Logan St. A 2 p.m. burial will follow at Fort Logan National Cemetery, 3698 S. Sheridan Blvd. A reception after the burial is being held at the Colorado Convention Center.
Raquel, 16, said even though she knows Montoya’s death was not her fault, she acknowledged the significance of his sacrifice.
“Thank you so much,” Raquel said, specifically addressing Montoya’s family. “He was a great guy who saved a lot of people.”
The fire started at 4:30 a.m. May 14 at 4306 Thompson Court.
Raquel’s mother, Cindy Maestas, said she had cleaned her face with a cotton ball soaked with alcohol and left those items on a small table where she also keeps burning religious candles.
Maestas said a nearby train causes the house to shake and she thinks the locomotive went by and jostled the cosmetics and the candles, igniting the blaze.
One of the only memories she has is the flames shooting up from the table and traveling across the wall of her bedroom.
Shantell Gutierrez, 14, called 911 and helped get her mother and grandmother out of the house when she saw the flames and black smoke. But Raquel was still inside.
She said she tried to get her sister, yelling for a flashlight even though the family did not have one.
Raquel walked a couple of steps before passing out, Shantell said.
“I tried to grab her by her feet. I couldn’t drag her no more,” Shantell said. “It was so much worse than you think it would be. The smoke was burning my eyes.”
Shantell said she is glad her sister is going to recover, but feels awful that Montoya lost his life.
“I am very grateful for what he did,” she said. “I’m so sorry that that happened right before he retired.”
Maestas cried today during a press conference at the hospital as she tried to balance the joy of having her daughter recover with the tragedy of the fireman’s death.
“We want to thank his family and fire station No. 9,” Maestas said. “We had no idea the magnitude of the work they do for the community. My daughter is alive and it’s incredible.”
Montoya suffered smoke inhalation and went into cardiac arrest while leading his crew out of a second-floor bedroom. A mattress fell on top of him while he was leaving the room, dislodging his face mask.
Raquel suffered first- and second-degree burns on her left arm and foot. She will undergo surgery on Wednesday and doctors tell her she should recover internally from the smoke inhalation. She said she expects to leave the hospital in a week.
The American Red Cross has helped the family with housing and clothing, but the Gutierrez family lost everything when their home burned down.
Susana Gutierrez, the matriarch of the family and owner of the home, is suffering because the stress is impacting her diabetes.
“She is having a lot of memory problems and she is not mobile,” Maestas said. “She has not cried and I am worried about her.”
Anyone wishing to donate may visit the Gutierrez Relief Fund Web site at www.gutierrezrelieffund.org or send donations by mail to the Susana Gutierrez Disaster Relief Fund, c/o Mountain States Bank, 1635 E. Colfax Ave., Denver, 80218.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or at fcardona@denverpost.com.
