Vermilion neighbors save 'Toto' lookalike from burning house

VERMILION — It was just another day, a pleasant May afternoon when Matt Green heard his wife yelling there was serious trouble. "The neighbor's house is on fire! The neighbor's house is on fire!" Two doors down, on the same side of the street on Idleview Drive, flames were coming out the windows of Willie Ann Shultz's house. Green, a detective with the Erie County Sheriff's Office, didn't know Schultz well, "but I've never seen her not be there." "I dropped what I was doing immediately and ran down to her house and met Tony on the way in," he said, referring to Tony Budka, another neighbor, directly across the street. Both men ran into the burning house to find Shultz, who is 84. "I kicked the door in and we started clearing the rooms one by one," Green said. "We didn't find her, but when I got to the kitchen I did find a white canine on the floor, lying there." The dog was lethargic, likely beginning to feel the effects of the smoke that was rapidly filling the house. The men retreated, dog in tow, and Green secured it in his garage. He realized then that the only place they hadn't searched was the back patio — and headed back to the home. The fire appeared to be coming from that part of the house and now the electrical wires were loudly popping. Green said he took along a fire extinguisher, though he knew it would be useless against a structure fire of that extent. "I knew it really wouldn't do anything but I thought it was better to have it and not need it than not have it at all, I guess," and headed in, just to make sure, while the Vermilion Fire Department raced to the scene. He quickly got out and firefighters rushed in, made sure no one was in the building and extinguished the fire. Shultz was out with a friend. She was very grateful her little dog — who "looked a lot like Toto from 'The Wizard of Oz'," Green said — was saved when she got home. Budka, the assistant wrestling coach for the Wellington Schools, could not be reached for comment. The little dog, a Shih Tzu named Miles, is 9. Miles is Willie Ann's "little baby," said Margo Shultz, her daughter-in-law. Margo and Troy Shultz, Willie Ann's daughter-in-law and son, live four doors down but were in St. Louis, waiting for a flight home from vacation when they received a call about the fire. "That day, she got the whole house immaculate and perfect, she turned around and said 'My house is beautiful and I'm so happy I live here.' She left to go see her sister and she left the TV on for her dog. That's why they thought she was in there, because the TV was on," she said. Storms delayed their trip but their sons Cody and Mason were home from college at the time to help, as were Willie Ann's other son, Tony, and daughter-in-law, Sue, and grandchildren Amy Emerik and Angie Wooten, in the aftermath. The community immediately stepped in to help, too, Margo said. The owners of Threads, a boutique in town, "brought clothes to her within an hour, she had clothes to go to bed in and fresh clothes for the next day; another person ran to the store and got dog food and toiletries, and my good friend came over to take care of her and everything, and people asking questions," Margo Shultz said. Strangers and friends stopped by for days after, dropping off clothes, food, and so many phone numbers: What can I do? Call me if you need anything? The mayor reached out, the service director came over, the fire chief was so helpful, she said. When the firefighters came, they managed to pull out a chest of drawers full of family photos before the house was consumed. "Our town is blessed with the best people that are so unselfish, they come and take care of what they have to do without batting an eyelash. I don't think we know what we have. We are very lucky," she said. "She was ecstatic they saved her dog. I don't think she could have made it if she'd lost her little baby too," Margo said. "What they did is amazing," Vermilion Fire Chief Bill Brown said. "I look at how society has changed and I don't think people are as willing to help others as much as they used to be. "These guys, they saw the fire; they didn't know if she was home or not and they kicked down the front door and made their way into the house to find her and got her little dog out. There are still good people out there. Hopefully, good people are multiplying as time goes on. We need folks like that." "It's always embedded in you," Green said. "Something's wrong, you gotta make it right." Vermilion City Council honored the two men for their heroism with a proclamation on Monday. Contact Rini Jeffers by email at rinijeffers@gmail.com.