Retrospect: Children saved from fire

Twenty-five years ago this week, Chris Limbert rescued two children from a truck fire. But he refused to call himself a hero.

“I just remember looking over and saying, ‘I’ve got to get those kids out,’” Limbert told Commercial Review reporter Dan Zinkand for a story about the Dec. 17, 1991, incident.

Just before 1 p.m., Limbert saw smoke coming from a truck in the parking lot at Ludwig’s Supermarket, 1001 W. Votaw St., Portland. When he approached the vehicle, 8-year-old Joshua West climbed out of the sliding rear window. Limbert then found a dog and two other children — Jamie West, 3, and Kelly West, 5 — inside the truck.

“They had their arms extended and they were waiting for me to help,” said Limbert.

After pulling the children from the truck, Limbert got the fire extinguisher from his Teledyne Portland Forge delivery truck and attempted to put out the fire. It was too small to do much to contain the fire, but Portland Fire Department arrived moments later and extinguished the flames within a few minutes.

Melissa Buchtel, the children’s mother, said she had left them in the truck while going inside the store to buy some milk. One of them had apparently found a lighter and started a piece of paper on fire.

Limbert left the scene without seeking any credit for his heroics.

“I wanted to thank him but I was shaken up and I guess he just left,” said Buchtel.