Early morning fire in Colee Street trailer park

St Augustine and St Johns County firefighters responded before 6:00 a.m. this morning to a trailer park on Colee Street in St Augustine; the scene of a fully involved mobile home fire.

A female resident and her two children were rescued from certain death when a neighbor, identified as Brian Gatchell, entered the inferno to pull them safely outside and away from the blaze.

In a televised interview from the scene, Action News reporter Michael Yoshida spoke with Gatchell, who collapsed in the heavy smoke while he was getting one of the children out. His fiance had to come in and pull him out after the rescue attempt.

“Did I save the children, are the children safe? Is everybody safe?,” Gatchell asked Yoshida during the interview. “As soon as I found out they were safe, I was okay.”

The American Red Cross is assisting the displaced family at this time.

“I ended up collapsing, they ended up pulling me out and doing CPR on me,” Gatchell said in the interview.