Fire destroys Montara home, lives saved by passerby

Six engines, representing the Point Montara, Half Moon Bay, and Pacifica Fire Departments responded to a fire at 1151 Cedar in Montara at about 6:30 Tuesday evening. No lives were lost, due to the help of a quick-thinking passerby.

According to Mickey Booher, a neighbor, a person driving by the house noticed a small amount of smoke. He alerted Booher, whose wife called 911 while he and the driver went to the house. They knocked on the front and back doors and woke one man who was sleeping on the first floor. A second man, who a neighbor says was in the shower, followed. "They drove their cars out of the driveway, while we knocked on the neighbors’ doors. The windows blew out right after that." Booher said that lives could have been lost if the driver had not seen that small amount of smoke that he described as "not even noticeable".

The owner was off the premises at the time.

The Point Montara Fire District had a meeting scheduled for 7:30pm tonight.

Barry Parr

Barry Parr