Eddie Cabral and Eric Velarde + save man from apartment fire, Two Fresno Pacific University soccer players and a city water utilities worker are being hailed as heroes for rescuing a man from his burning apartment south of the campus track last week.

"I would like to tell all three of them how brave they are," apartment complex resident Robin Schramek said Saturday.

The victim, Manuel Silva, 61, was badly burned and was in critical condition Saturday at Community Regional Medical Center, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Schramek, who lives in the four-unit complex at 2070 S. Willow Ave. where the fire broke out, returned home from shopping about 11 a.m. Thursday to find Silva's apartment engulfed in smoke and flames.

Her screams for help got the attention of the two soccer players -- Edilberto "Eddie" Cabral and Eric Velarde, who were running around the Fresno Pacific track, according to a story on Fresno Pacific's website.

They jumped the fence, and one alerted city worker Ronnie Watts, who was working on a nearby pump station.


Cabral cut his calf during the rescue and was pulled away from the fire by Velarde.

Watts said Saturday that he went to the apartment doorway but could only see Silva's body from the waist down because smoke was billowing out of the screen door.

"He was just standing there shaking and moaning," Watts said.

Watts said he helped Silva out to a grass area in front of the apartment, but shortly thereafter he and another man had to move Silva farther away as the fire's heat grew more intense.

"The only thing he said was, 'Did you save my dog?' " Watts said.

He had to tell Silva no.

Barbara Eubanks, administrator of the senior living complex, said Silva had a small white Maltese.

"He loved that dog," she said.

Velarde also helped a woman, who uses a walker and lives adjacent to Silva, out of her apartment, Schramek said.

Watts said he tried to comfort Silva.

"I told him, 'Hang in there, buddy, they're on their way,' " he said, referring to paramedics.

Fresno firefighters and police and an ambulance crew soon arrived, he said.

The cause of the blaze remains undetermined, a fire spokesman said.

Silva is a military veteran who has lived at the complex for about three years, Eubanks said.

She said there are smoke alarms in each of the 732 apartments in the two complexes -- the Senior Citizens Village and California League-Fresno Village.

Cabral, a Sunnyside High School graduate, and Velarde, a Reedley High School graduate, are Fresno Pacific freshmen, according to the school's website story.

Neither said they feel like a hero.

"I feel like I could have done more," said Cabral, who was wounded in the rescue and needed stitches.

After Thursday's stressful fire rescue, Watts took a day off from work Friday and slept in. He left his Clovis apartment about 11 a.m. to go to the bank -- only to find that his 1993 Honda Civic had been stolen.

He feared it had wound up in a chop shop and was relieved when he got a call from Clovis police about 3:30 a.m. Saturday that his Civic had been found.
And, Watts said, he was somewhat surprised to learn that "it was in good shape."