Here is another bit I transcribed from Phil Hendrie's now defunct radio show.

Phil Interviews a Hero

Phil: Most of us don’t really see or know of things that happen in real life that are straight out of the movies, but to be a part of something, to be part of an event that is literally almost out of a Hollywood script is almost unheard of and we’re gonna talk to a man right now. His name is Don Parsley. The man is a truck driver from Eugene, Oregon and he joins us on our newsmaker line to tell us about something that he was involved in, quite by accident, two weeks ago, over here in Mar Vista, near Venice Beach and it has to do with an unbelievable rescue of a child from a roof of a burning building. Don, thanks for joining us.

Don: Thank you.

Phil: This is an incredible story. You rescued this girl who was unable to speak, so the girl had, uh, my understanding is she was deaf?

Don: She was, uh, almost totally deaf in one ear and I think she was completely deaf in the other. I think she had about ten percent hearing from what I know about it, but I don’t have all the information on that.

Phil: Alright. She was on the roof of the Ocean View Apartments in Mar Vista while the building was in flames. Now you have been awarded a Good Samaritan Award from the Mar Vista Senior Women’s League -- it’s their fortieth annual honor -- along with a check for six thousand dollars. It’s a great story and it’s one of those heroic stories. How does it feel to be a hero?

Don: Well, I don’t go really in for that hero stuff. I just was at, I guess the right place at the right time, you know.

Phil: Now, you’re a truck driver, right?

Don: That’s correct.

Phil: Alright, tell us. You were driving by in the area of the apartments over in Ocean View, right?

Don: Yeah. I was actually looking for an address. I was making a delivery to a business in that area…and uh….

Phil: Just tell us the story, Don. Go ahead.

Don: Okay, um, I saw the smoke and there were flames coming from the -- two floors of a four-story apartment building and when, I guess when you see smoke you think somebody might be in danger and sure enough I heard, uh, there was one woman, pretty hysterical, she was on the street and one of the other people told me that her daughter was up in the, up in the apartments up top.

Phil: Now there was no way of getting up to the roof of the apartment by way of stairs?

Don: No, Sir.

Phil: Or an elevator?

Don: No, Sir, I looked around and didn’t see any fire equipment either, or police there yet, so…. And most of the people were either elderly or kids.

Phil: So it looks like you got elected, huh?

Don: Yeah, I got elected.

Phil: So tell us, how did you get the kid off the roof of that building?

Don: Well, the only way to access the roof from what I could tell was literally going up the side of this tree. I had to climb this pretty old oak tree and fortunately one of the branches was fairly thick and extended close to the roof. So I climbed the tree and by this time the girl was on the roof.

Phil: How was she doing? Obviously she was, must have been frightened, huh?

Don: She was crying. I mean she was very frightened, I could tell. But when I was able to get over to the rooftop, I noticed that she calmed down just as soon as I reached out and I took her hand and, I guess she was sort of immediately at peace so I had her just hang on to my neck and I tell you who the real hero was, that oak tree. It was there and so we got --if it hadn’t been there, I never would have gotten to the roof of that apartment, you know. So we got down and she was crying and she told me that she’d left her dolls in her apartment in her bedroom so I looked up at the building and I said, you know, I said to myself, “I guess I’m going back in”, you know.

Phil: So you went back up that tree to get that girl’s dolls?

Don: Well, I felt I should. She was a nice girl. So I got back up to the roof. By the time -- this time the roof was really hot and there was a rooftop access door that went down, so I had to kick in one of the doors, cuz, and the flames were by this time pretty intense and I just, you know I --

Phil: What did you do then? So you’ve got these flames.

Don: Well, I just ran in and hoped for the best. I don’t know how I found my way into the bedroom. I couldn’t really see more than a few feet past my face, but I found the stuffed bear that she wanted and I just made my way out back to the roof and back down the tree.

Phil: Whew! What a story! That’s a story, huh? I mean I’m blown away. And the Mar Vista Senior Women’s League will be giving their award to -- now have you been interviewed by any of the press?

Don: No, actually to be honest with you, I was walking from the scene when the fire fighters started arriving and I never really did get the little girl’s name.

Phil: You never got her name or you never got the name of any member of her family, right?

Don: No, Sir, I didn’t.

Phil: What did you do?

Don: Well, I just walked back to my apartment and, you know, I stopped for the paper that I’d gone out to get in the first place.

Phil: Were you contacted by the fire department?

Don: I wasn’t contacted by the police, but what I did the next day is I contacted the Mar Vista Senior Women’s League to find out if they knew of this little girl and if she was alright and they said no, they hadn’t heard about it and I told them, you know, what had happened and the next thing I know, they’re calling me up and telling me they wanna give me an award for being a hero or something and I felt like I couldn’t turn them down because they’re, you know, they’re a bunch of old ladies and they were gonna have a party but --I’m just a regular guy. I mean, you know.

Phil: Well, let me tell you something, Don. You know, you may be a regular guy but what you did is not something any man would do. What you did was extraordinary. Okay?

Don: Well, thank you.

Phil: I mean it’s extraordinary. Not every man, every woman, is gonna do that.

Don: Well, I remember she was unable to walk, but I told Amber that I would be her legs for the day, you know. And she thanked me. I guess we kind of bonded on that level, you know.

Phil: Alright, our number is 1-800-449-8686 as we talk here to Don Parsley about an extraordinary story that’s right out of movies. A man who goes up the burning building to save a little girl. And I wanna just, cuz you just mentioned, you -- hold on for a minute. You…did you say that you knew her name?

Don: Yeah. Her name is Amber.

Phil: But you said you never did get her name, though.

Don: Well, no, I didn’t get her last name. That’s what I meant to say.

Phil: Oh, okay. So you -- all we know is this girl’s name is Amber, huh?

Don: That’s…yeah. And I’m just grateful, you know, that I was there to try and help her. I mean, the thing that struck me more than anything about it was that she was calling for help, but nobody seemed to wanna do anything. And she was waving her arms and jumping up and down and screaming, but --

Phil: The mother, you said, was hysterical, right?

Don: …Well, she was pretty funny. I mean, she was telling jokes and everything, but the fact is that --

Phil: No, no, by that I mean, you say the mother was upset.

Don: Yeah, she was upset. She was very upset. And her name was, uh, I’m trying to remember what her name was, but I can’t remember now, but everybody was upset, but nobody wanted to do anything and I asked this one guy that was there, he was a fire fighter, in fact, and he said, well, uh…actually I don’t have much memory of what happened because of the smoke inhalation. They had told me that I would have some memory loss from that. So I’m not really clear on who I talked to, but I do remember seeing her father there and I remember seeing her mother there and --

Phil: Now, how did you -- did you meet the father?

Don: I didn’t meet either one of ‘em, the mother or the father, but uh, Am…, er, Amber told me later that they, that’s who they were. And so I was gonna go meet ‘em but then I decided I better just, I just had to get home because I…I had something in the stove and I...You know, you talk about fires, I was afraid I was gonna burn my own apartment down.

Phil: So you, you, you….You went out for a paper, right? Did you say you drove a truck, too?

Don: Yeah, I do drive a truck, yeah.

Phil: But, you, why were you out when you saw the building burning? It was because you were driving your truck, right?

Don: Yes, Sir, I was. I was driving --

Phil: Okay, because I’m a little bit confused. Did you go out to get a paper?

Don: I went out to get a paper, yeah, but I was also on my way to get my truck to drive it. And that’s when I saw everything happen.

Phil: Were you on your way to work?

Don: Yes, Sir, I was.

Phil: Alright, you were on your way to work but you had something in the stove that was cooking. It’s, it’s okay, man. I know what you’re saying when you, when you, uh --

Don: See, that’s the whole thing. I suffered so much trauma from just, the fire and everything that I don’t, I’m not clear on what happened, but I do know -- I know what happened but I don’t know whether I was going to get a paper in my truck or if I had just been walking to go get my truck and then I was gonna go get a paper, but I, see, that is the part I’m not clear on.

Phil: Have you been to a doctor? Have you been checked out?

Don: No, I haven’t. I really don’t feel it’s a big thing. I don’t like people making a big fuss over me. The only reason why I called the Mar Vista Senior Women’s League is to find out if they knew what happened to, uh, this little, uh, girl. And then they said, next thing I know, they said I’m a hero, you know, so…

Phil: Okay, Don, hold the line, alright?

Don: Yes, Sir.

Phil: 1-800-449-8686. An incredible story of a man who raced into a burning building –this, I mean, you see it in a movie, maybe -- went up to the roof, climbed up a tree, got to the roof, got this little girl, carried her down, then went back up there and got, I forget what it was, was it a stuffed doll or was a …. Don, are you there?

Don: Yes, Sir.

Phil: What did you go up to get? Were they dolls or was it a stuffed bear?

Don: …When I went to do what?

Phil: When you went back in?

Don: Uh, um, that was, yeah…no. That was a….they were, it was a doll.

Phil: It was one doll?

Don: Yeah, no, it was two dolls.

Phil: Cuz you said something about a stuffed bear?

Don: Yeah. No. She wanted a lot of stuff, so I just grabbed everything I could. I got a stuffed bear, I got a couple of dolls, anything that she wanted.

Phil: Alright. 1-800-449-8686. Don Parsley joins us on the Phil Hendrie show to talk about his incredible tale of saving a girl from a burning building. And you know what, he walked away before anybody could get his name or thank him. It’s the world famous Phil Hendrie show.

[break]

Phil: Don Parsley is with me. What a story, Don, that you were involved in here. Mar Vista’s a section over near Venice Beach and a building was on fire and you rescued this girl from the roof of the burning building. You know the rooftops of buildings can be incredibly hot for obvious reasons. When you went up that tree no one else attempted to assist you, no one else on the street watching what you were doing tried to lend a hand?

Don: No, I was thinking about that as I was going up there, up the tree, I was thinking, you know, what they say is true, people don’t want to get involved, you know?

Phil: Boy, they sure don’t!

Don: And, uh, it’s probably because, I guess maybe, I just didn’t have any fear. I mean, I had fear but I knew what, you know, the right thing to do was, so I did it. I’m sure it made a lot of men feel, maybe, bad. I told the old ladies, I mean not the old ladies, but the women at the Mar Vista Senior Women’s League, I said, uh, what I did and, uh, they asked me about it and I said also nobody helped me and that’s when I told ‘em what I had done, then they called later and they said they were going to give me the money for it. So, I feel that what I did was probably good, but I don’t want to be a hero or anything, but by the same token I guess I am, you know. I’m only a hero because the other men that were there --

Phil: Now, you had mentioned that there were only old -- you had said that there were elderly people and kids?

Don: Yeah. There were.

Phil: But you say that there were other men there?

Don: Oh, yeah. There were other men there.

Phil: Cuz I thought when you first said it that there was only elderly people and children.

Don: There were only elderly people and children when I first got there, but then when I started to go up the tree I looked back and I saw that there were now men that were there, too. So…

Phil: So at that point, when you looked back and saw that men were there, too, while you were going up this tree to save this child, you’re thinking, “Why won’t they help me?”

Don: I did. I thought, “I wonder why” you know, why they won’t help me and uh…

Phil: Did you think about calling back to them and saying, well, “Get the fire department”?

Don: I did call -- I did do that. I said, “Call the fire department” and I saw one guy immediately run to a phone booth. And, uh, so…

Phil: So, it seems like if you hadn’t said anything to anybody then they wouldn’t --nobody would have done anything.

Don: That’s the way it seems. And I, then I went up there and I got the, uh, girl, uh, who she couldn’t walk, so I had to pick her up. She was laying on the roof just on her back, laying. And I --

Phil: Now, she was also crippled?

Don: …What?

Phil: Did you say that she is also crippled as well as deaf and dumb, or what?

Don: I didn’t say she was deaf -- did I say she was….She was deaf and dumb, yeah, but she was also , yeah --

Phil: She also couldn’t walk.

Don: She also could not walk, yeah.

Phil: So she couldn’t hear, see or speak?

Don: Uh, that’s right.

Phil: Or walk?

Don: That’s right.

Phil: Alright, now, I wanna ask you a question. You found out her name was Amber, right?

Don: Yeah.

Phil: Because you said she told you her name?

Don: No, no. Her mom did.

Phil: But you never met her mother.

Don: I didn’t meet her mom THEN, but as I was leaving…the lady came over to me and said, “Are you the guy that saved my daughter?” I said “Yeah”. Or, the first thing I said was, “Well, who are you?” and she said, “My name is…” -- I forgot what her name is now. And she said, “By the way, my name is -- my daughter’s name is Amber.” I said, “Oh, okay, thank you” cuz I was wondering about that.

Phil: Okay. And the other thing I want to mention, Don, to you, is that if the girl is deaf, dumb, blind and can’t walk, you said she was jumping up and down on the roof, waving her arms, screaming for help?

Don: …Who was?

Phil: The girl that you saved?

Don: Yes. Uh, no. The girl that I saved, Mr. Hendrie, if you remember what I said, she was laying flat on her back on the roof.

Phil: Alright. Okay. Well, who was jumping up and down, I forget?

Don: I don’t know. I saw someone jumping up and down and screaming. I think it was probably her father. Or maybe not her father. It might have been her mother. Or it could have been both of them. Probably, I think both of them were jumping up and down.

Phil: Did you ever find out -- I guess you really didn’t get any information, how a crippled girl gets to the roof of a building that’s on fire. Did she have a wheelchair there?

Don: Yeah. I saw the wheelchair and I, uh, it was folded up. So I, I guess she went up in her wheelchair.

Phil: Was there an elevator?

Don: Uh, you know, you got a lot of questions and uh --

Phil: No, I’m fascinated with the story. I think the story is an interesting story.

Don: I will tell you, Mr. Hendrie, in all honesty, one of the side effects of smoke inhalation is generally amnesia. I was told that by a doctor I went to that afternoon, after I…. After I got done saving the girl, I decided I’d go to my doctor because I wanted to check out to see if I had smoke inhalation and he said to me, “You’ve got soot around your nose” and I said, “Yeah, as a matter of fact, cuz I was in a fire just half-hour ago” and he said, “Tell me about it” and that’s when I said, you know, “There’s a lot I don’t remember” and he said, “Well, that doesn’t surprise me cuz if you breathe smoke you’ll lose your memory, short-term memory, but then a lot of it comes back to you”. So when you ask me about the girl, uh --

Phil: Alright, well, what we’re saying here is, Don, I’m not detracting from what you did because it’s a great thing. You saved a girl from a burning building by climbing up this oak tree, grabbing her -- she held on to your neck, right?

Don: That’s correct, yeah.

Phil: Alright, and, uh, she was laying on the roof?

Don: Yeah, she was laying on her back, on account, you know she was crippled, so she wasn’t gonna be standing there. The only thing, if you’re crippled, the only thing you can do is lay there, so…

Phil: Alright, and you say she got up to the roof in her wheelchair but I’m wondering if there’s no elevator, how does a wheelchair get up to a roof?

Don: …Well, she had told me that she crawled up there. Um, and here’s why – I know it sounds crazy but she crawled up because she knew her wheelchair was up there. It was up there. That’s where they keep it. But by the time she got up there, she was so tired from crawling she decided to lay down and rest.

Phil: Okay.

Don: Believe me, Mr. Hendrie.

Phil: I’m not doubting you. I wanna know more about the story, because your story --

Don: Look, all I wanted to do was to get this kid’s truck for him and not be -- I don’t wanna be a hero for saving him. I just, I just wanted to go up, get this kid and get him down to, you know, where his uncle, er, I mean not his uncle, but you know his…

Phil: His mother and father.

Don: Yeah.

Phil: But it was a girl a minute ago.

Don: I meant a girl. I’m sorry.

Phil: Alright, the Mar Vista Senior Women’s League has given you their Good Samaritan Award. It’s six thousand dollars. There’s been no other press.

Don: Mr. Hendrie, can I just say something?

Phil: Yeah.

Don: I’m sorry that I said it was a boy. It was a girl but her hair was short and she was wearing jeans. And she reminded me a lot of the girl in Panic Room. And I always think, okay, you know, I always remember what that movie, you know, It’s Pat, which I always -- I just love that movie so much. And she’d say, “Is he or isn’t she”, you know? And that’s what I thought as soon as I went up to the roof.

Phil: As soon as you went up to the roof and you saw this girl laying there with short hair and jeans.

Don: Yeah, the first thing I thought was “Is he or isn’t she?” And then I asked, I guess I asked it, you know, or not it, but I mean, I said, “How did you get up here?” and that’s when it said -- I mean she said, “I crawled up because I knew my wheelchair was gonna be here”. And I said, “Why are you laying there?” and she said, “I’m resting after crawling, but I was getting my second wind”.

Phil: Yeah. [laughs wheezily]

Don: Well, I don’t know what’s so funny.

Phil: No, there’s nothing funny, man.

Don: I noticed the bottoms of her sneakers were smoldering.

Phil: Maybe from walk—oh, she couldn’t walk.

Don: No, Sir. You know if you wanna make a joke out of this, that’s fine.

Phil: No, don’t hang up, Sir, okay?

Don: No, it’s, it’s [hangs up]

Phil: Alright, 1-800-449-8686. The man’s story is -- it’s an interesting story. He saved a girl or a boy that was either crippled, blind, deaf and dumb, from the roof of a burning building and he or she got up there either by crawling or going in a wheelchair.

[break]

Phil: Okay, Don, I just want you to know, I’m not making fun of you. I know you got some amnesia from the smoke inhalation, but I just notice there was a couple of inconsistencies in your story.

Don: Well, I didn’t know that when I was asked to come on your program --

Phil: Well, actually you called us, remember?

Don: …Well, I don’t remember. If you say that I called you, okay, then I called you.

Phil: Yes, you did. You called my producer.

Don: Alright, but I didn’t think I was calling a show that was gonna have me on and basically call me a liar, you know.

Phil: I’m not calling you a liar. I just wanna ask you something. You say you saved a little girl and then you said you saved a little boy.

Don: No, I said I saved a little girl who had a short haircut, who looked like the girl in the movie Panic Room. That’s the thing I remember. And she had on jeans and a workshirt and she had, like, a Goth, you know, a Goth earring or something and --

Phil: And she was deaf and dumb.

Don: No, I said she was blind, okay? See, it was hard to tell because my eyebrows had been singed by the fire and so…not only my eyebrows but my eyelashes had been singed, so they were, uh, charred and they were hanging in my eyes. They weren’t, you know, sticking straight up the way they’re supposed to. So I couldn’t see because of --

Phil: Cuz of charred eyelashes.

Don: Well, and there was also blistering. ‘kay, if you wanna start making a joke about it.

Phil: No, Sir, I’m not. I just – alright, so you -- but when you started out, you said that she was jumping up and down on the roof, waving, and she wanted help.

Don: She was jumping up and down. I believe that what happened was, like they say in that one story, when you have strength and you can lift up a truck if a kid’s laying under it. Okay. I think she was so scared that for that moment she was able to walk over and speak to the people and then after that adrenalin left, she had to lie down and be mute again….So, I mean --

Phil: Alright, you’re telling me that through an adrenalin rush, this woman, er, this girl, was able to walk and talk, but now is back to being crippled and mute.

Don: Yeah, and blind.

Phil: And blind.

Don: Yes.

Phil: And she told you her name.

Don: You know what, if you wanna call me a liar --

Phil: Sir, I’m not calling you a liar. Lemme just, I’ll get a gentleman on the line here. Tony, go ahead, you’re on the Phil Hendrie Show.

Caller: Okay. Yeah, like I said, I mean it just kinda sounds like you’re heckling him. I mean, he came on the show to do a good thing.

Phil: Came on the show to do a good thing? Or he came on the show to --

Caller: Yeah, he didn’t even know that he was gonna be on the air!

Phil: Yeah, that’s right. He called me. Alright. Uh.

Don: Why’d you hang up on him?

Phil: Cuz that guy’s -- he hasn’t got a point.

Don: Wait a minute. That’s the one guy that was gonna call and help me.

Phil: I don’t wanna talk to him.

Don: Well, now, doesn’t that beat all? So that proves…

Phil: Look, pal, I’ll say it to you. I think you’re a liar. I think you’re a liar. I think that you didn’t do any of this stuff. And I think you came on my show, after calling me, to try to get some kind of a big thrill about a hero, alright? And --

Don: Lookit, I told you the truth. When I said that I rescued some kid…

Phil: Maybe you saw a fireman do that. Maybe you saw a policeman do that. Maybe you saw another guy do that. But I don’t believe you did it.

Don: Look, I have cancer, okay? I’m gonna die. And I got the cancer from breathing the materials of a pre-1975 building, saving that….

Phil: That what?

Don: That boy. Isn’t that what I said?

Phil: No, you said girl.

Don: That’s what I meant, I’m sorry.

Phil: That’s what you meant.

Don: I said girl.

Phil: Yeah, you said girl after I told you. Lookit, are you telling me now you have cancer?

Don: Yeah.

Phil: How’d you find that out?

Don: When I went to the doctor.

Phil: You went to the doctor immediately after saving this kid, to check on the smoke inhalation and you found out you had cancer that day?

Don: Yes! He did some tests.

Phil: Okay, and what did he find out?

Don: That I have what asbestos gives you.

Phil: Really? What’s that?

Don: Cancer.

Phil: What kind?

Don: It has a big long name. I’m sorry, I don’t know. I’m gonna die. I guess you don’t care. Okay, fine.

Phil: Lookit. I don’t…I don’t want you to die, man. But I don’t think what you’re telling me adds up. I got a girl, a boy, crippled, not, on the roof, jumping up and down, was able to speak for a few seconds, and now is back to being mute and crippled. You talked to her mother. You talked to her father. You talked to her uncle. No, you didn’t talk to any of them. You did it as you were driving by in a truck. No, you were walking by to get a paper. You did it as you were walking by to get a paper and then you were gonna get your truck. You did it as you were going by on your way to work, but then you were going -- as you were walking to get a paper, you were gonna get your truck and then go to work after you saved this little girl, but not before you go to the doctor to find out if smoke inhalation does anything. And, oh yeah, you found out it gives you amnesia and you also have cancer now from what asbestos gives you, but you don’t know what it is.

Don: …Go to hell. [rattles phone like he is hanging up] I assume you know where that is.

Phil: Yes, I do, Sir.

Don: That’s great. [rattles phone like he is hanging up] Well, I hope you find your way.

Phil: Fine. Go ahead, hang up.

Don: I just wanna say one other thing. I didn’t come on your program to be heckled. Like that one man who called and was in my favor and you hung up on him. [rattles phone like he is hanging up]

Phil: Fine. Go ahead, hang up.

Don: I’m gonna hang up. But I’m gonna tell you something before I --

Phil: Oh, come on. Hang up, man.

Don: No. Before I hang up, I’m gonna tell you something. When a man does a good thing in this world he doesn’t get recognized for it. I come on your program to tell you about a great thing that I did and all you did was sit here and call me a big liar. Boy, I hope that when God meets you, he decides that maybe you just, uh, take the down elevator. Thank you very much. [rattles phone like he is hanging up] [aside] Give me that spliff, Betty, will ya?

Phil: Yeah!