Stock image of a house fire.Photo:Getty
Getty
A New Jersey couple owes a debt of gratitude – and their lives – to theirneighbors.
Jim Miller was one of the neighbors who raced to save the husband and wife.
“That whole front of the house, it was just a ball of flames,” Miller said, perPhiladelphia’s CBS News. After hearing his daughter screaming, he quickly got out of bed and ran across the street to do all he could to help.
“We started banging on the basement windows and we broke it out and all of a sudden, we heard a woman’s voice, ‘We’re here, we’re here.’ I’m going, ‘Where? Where are you?’” Miller told the outlet.
He said it was around this time, a second neighbor appeared, and began to assist him with trying to get the couple out safely.
After finding a way in, in the back of the home, the two good Samaritans said they found the woman just outside the basement door screaming.
firefighters – stock image.Getty
However, her husband was not. He was near a set of stairs and had been exposed to a great deal of smoke from the growing flames.
“So, me and Joe grabbed him, and we drug him up, got him up onto the backyard there and I started rubbing his chest,” Miller said.
“That’s what neighbors do, that’s what we do,” he said. “I’m just glad I was there and I’d do it again.”
A third neighbor, Tom Carey, was awakened after his family’s dog began frantically barking. From their home, his wife Rachel could see the blaze.
The news station spoke with Tom, who said he ran outside, leapt over a small fence, and started screaming for his next-door neighbors to get out. Rachel did her best to wake other neighbors up.
Rachel spoke highly of her neighbors, thinking back on what it was like when she and her husband first met them.
fire truck and police car – stock image.Getty
“They’re like family, like they’re so nice and they welcomed us with open arms as soon as we moved in,” she said of their warm welcome to the block.
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Neighbors also told CBS News that they were recovering after suffering from minor burns and smoke inhalation. The news station added that the home “is likely a complete loss.”
The investigation into what started the fire is still ongoing, the police department said.
source: people.com
