Two PG&E employees put safety first during a home fire
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. employees Michael Garcia and Miguel Hernandez don’t think of themselves as heroes, but to a family whose house caught fire, the pair are just that and more—they are lifesavers.
During the May Operations Conference, the American Gas Association honored the men with its Meritorious Service Award, given annually to the “individual who has performed the most meritorious act in the gas industry in saving a human life during the prior calendar year.”
Garcia, a gas control technician, and Hernandez, a measurement and control mechanic, had begun a routine meter maintenance job at a San Jose, California, home, but they quickly switched gears when they saw smoke billowing from a house across the street.
Their first thoughts about who might be trapped inside were answered when a man opened the garage door and yelled for help. His father, who had forgotten he was cooking something on the stove and had fallen asleep, was still in the house.
The pair gave the son their fire extinguisher and ran inside to find the elderly father kneeling on the floor, confused. As Garcia and Hernandez tried to get him to leave, he became resistant and angry at himself for starting the kitchen fire.
“The smoke was getting heavier—we were coughing and our eyes were burning. We knew it wasn’t safe for us and definitely not safe for him,” Hernandez said.
The pair lifted the man up and carried him to safety, then took out their kneeling pads to give him a soft place to lie down. As neighbors tended to the elderly man, who was later taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation, Hernandez and Garcia began evacuating nearby families. By the time firefighters arrived, the second story of the home was engulfed in flames.
Hernandez and Garcia said they were “a little shaken up,” but they insist anyone would have done what they did to save the man.
“We always have safety top on our minds on every job site,” Hernandez said.
They are equally humble about receiving their award. “That was unbelievable. We are very grateful,” Hernandez said.
“We never expected to get that kind of recognition,” Garcia said.