Rochester sanitation workers help save nine from house fire

Rochester sanitation workers Eliud Rodriguez and Derek Hardy are credited with saving the lives of eight adults and a child. At around 7:30 Saturday morning the two men while making their rounds saw smoke and flames coming from a house at 99 Chili Avenue. Rodriguez called 9-11 then made a heroic decision. He ran into the house to help get the residents out. “All I could think about was it's 7:30 in the morning there's people sleeping in there,” said Rodriguez. Rodriguez and Hardy went door trying to make sure everyone got out safely. “I heard the door bell "ding, ding, ding." You know, the time of morning like that I get frustrated but when I opened the window up Ii was like "oh, the house is on fire!" said Ervin Dillard. Dillard along with his mother, son, and fiance’ managed to get out unharmed. “Three more minutes and if that city worker wasn’t in the right place we probably would’ve had dead bodies here,” said Battalion Chief Mark Strzyzynsky. Fire officials say a preliminary investigation shows there was not a working smoke detector in the house. The cause of the fire is under investigation.