Family meets their hero

By JOE GORMAN Tribune Chronicle POSTED: April 11, 2010

Article Photos
Eric Campana, left, and Valerie Johnson look over Johnson’s burned home at 1786 Clermont Ave. N.E. on Saturday.
WARREN - Eric Campana remembers laying on the horn of a car parked in a Clermont Avenue N.E. home that was on fire and the stunned look on the face of the woman who peeked out of the house.

Resident Valerie Johnson said later that she was not so much scared as she was wondering what was going on.

It ended up that Campana woke her and her family up and saved them from a fire at their 1786 Clermont Ave. N.E. home just before 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Campana met the Johnsons for the first time Saturday while the family was retrieving items from the burned-out home.

Recalling what happened, Campana said he was walking to work with a friend when the friend spotted flames from the home. Campana called 911, and the dispatcher asked if anyone was in the home. Campana said he was not sure, even though he knocked.

''I was pounding on the door and no one answered,'' Campana said.

The dispatcher asked him if there was a car in the drive. When he said there was, the dispatcher told him blow the car's horn to wake up the occupants.

Campana said he managed to open the car door. He estimated he laid on the horn for about 15 seconds before a woman appeared at the back door.

Valerie Johnson, who has been living in the home for 2 1/2 years with her husband Jim, said Saturday that it was the pounding on the door and the car horn that woke her up. She slept right through the smoke detectors going off.

''They sounded like alarm clocks,'' she said of the detectors.

''I came to the door and said 'What the heck is going on?''' Johnson said.

Campana recalled that she appeared to be in shock when he told her the house was on fire, but she grabbed a small child and what appeared to be an infant and they ran outside, along with a man.

The Johnsons have two daughters, Emily, 5, and Chloe, 3 months.

''By the time I got to the front, the whole porch and the front of the house was on fire,'' Campana said.

Johnson said, ''If he would've been another five minutes...''

The fire had already spread to the closet in Chloe's room when the family left. Johnson grabbed Chloe while her husband hustled out the door with Emily. Because of the flames in the front of the home, they had to run through a neighbor's backyard to the front of their home.

By the time they reached the street, firefighters had arrived.

Fire Chief Ken Nussle credited Campana with getting the people in the home out, saying he averted a catastrophe by alerting them of the fire.

Damage from the blaze is listed at $10,000. The fire started on the front porch, according to fire department officials. As of yet, a cause has not been determined.

The Johnsons are moving to another home. Valerie Johnson said their church and daycare at Believer's Christian have helped them get back on their feet with clothes and furniture.

jgorman@tribtoday.com