LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Lyft driver Angela Haeberlin was picking up a woman from the Dorsey Village Apartments in Middletown Friday evening when she saw smoke begin to billow out of an apartment building.
“I had her call 911 while I jumped out and started banging on everyone’s door,” Haeberlin said as fire crews from Middletown/Anchorage, St. Matthews and Jeffersontown put out the fire.
Middletown/Anchorage Deputy Chief Mike Sutt said the call came in around 6:45 p.m. and it took about 25 minutes to put out the flames. He told WHAS11 that fire, smoke or water damaged three apartments but affected 10 apartments all together after the power was knocked out. He said no one was injured.
Haeberlin said that was her goal – to get everyone out as soon as she saw smoke.
“We got everybody out,” she said. “I went down the row. I was banging pretty hard.”
Haeberlin said at first she couldn’t tell at first if it was on fire, but as she started knocking on doors it got darker and thicker. She took a short video on her phone as the smoke came out of the building and sirens could be heard in the background.
“It was all on the back side. It got so thick you couldn’t see.”
She said that her first instinct was to help because of her years with Jeffersontown EMS around 30 years ago. Haeberlin said she was happy to help any way she could, but said she was worried there was one life she couldn’t help save.
“The lady that lives here [where the fire started] is pretty devastated. She may have lost a pet.” Haeberlin said. She tried to save the woman’s cat but couldn’t get to the apartment.
“I started up the stairs and I couldn’t see anything. I had to just come back out.”
But good news came a couple hours later when firemen found and rescued the owner’s orange tabby cat. Haeberlin said the cat was taken to an animal hospital to be looked at for smoke inhalation.
Haeberlin wasn’t able to take her ride to the airport as planned, but instead possibly helped save the lives of those inside. She stayed as the fire trucks packed up their gear and pulled out of the apartment complex, listening to the stories of those inside the apartments affected.
“I was told I got seven people out,” she told WHAS11 after via text. “One had a girl sound asleep, while the mom was in the shower... It didn’t hit me until so many thanked me.”
She said it wasn’t how she thought she’d spend a Friday night while working for Lyft, but she said she knew it was fate.
“I almost didn’t go drive tonight,” she shared. “I’m not sure why we come into people’s lives when we do. I don’t think I did anything heroic. I was just in the right place at the right time.”
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