Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

When a crew of workers from AZ-RY’s Landscaping was driving to a job at about 2 p.m. today, one of them noticed smoke coming from a house on West Hillman Drive in the Rancho El Dorado development.

Seeing the house was on fire, the crew stopped, and one of the employees, Justin Eldridge ran out to check the house to see if anyone was home.

“It was already engulfed in flames by the time we got to the scene,” he said.

Eldridge knocked on the front door, ran to the back and busted out the patio glass door, but on one responded. He heard what sounded like ammunition going off inside the house.

There was no one at home, the Maricopa Fire Department later reported, but there were two dogs in the back yard. Eldridge rescued the animals, a miniature pinscher and Chinese pug, by bringing them to the front and putting them into their truck.

“We held them until animal control showed up, and then we handed them off to them,” Eldridge said.



Ryan Riecks, who owns the landscape company, said he is proud of Eldridge and his three other employees, Daniel Hardy, Chris Figueroa and Lance Campbell, for stopping to help even before the fire department had arrived.



“It’s great to see local people being heroes,” he said. “We love our community and it shows.”

MFD confirmed there was no one home at the time of the fire. The resident had left about two hours earlier to run errands.

No injuries were reported. Damage to the house at 42039 W. Hillman Drive was extensive, and three engines and a ladder truck were called to fight the blaze. MFD is investigating the cause of the fire.



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