A heroic neighbor was seen braving huge plumes of black smoke to rescue a man from his burning home in Pennsylvania over the weekend.
Oscar Rivera, 48, was seen in video obtained by Storyful standing on a roof and reaching through an attic window of the Minersville home Sunday to grab a man by the arm and pull him to safety, as black smoke billowed escaped from the yellow house.
“Grab his pants!” Janeen Huth, who filmed the ordeal, could be heard pleading with Rivera as firefighters grabbed a ladder to reach the homeowner.
A few feet away, a woman could also be seen lying on the roof of the house next door, and Rivera quickly jumped down to check on her as well.
Meanwhile, her young children “stood at the door and watched,” according to Huth, who arrived at the scene on her way home Sunday.
The massive three-alarm fire was reported around 12:45 a.m. that day, Morning Call reports.
At the time, Rivera was playing with his children in the backyard when he said he heard a “boom,” he told WFMZ.
He then rushed into his yard and found the house across the street on fire, with a man trapped inside as a woman desperately tried to get him out.
“I looked at the guy, he was on the roof, like on the window sticking out, saying, ‘Help me, help me!'”
Firefighters were already on their way, but Rivera said he was worried crews wouldn’t arrive in time.
He grabbed a ladder and the eaves of the neighboring house, pulled himself up to a ledge and jumped onto the roof of the burning building, the Republican Herald reported.
“At the moment I wasn’t afraid, I just wanted to save him,” Rivera said. “That’s what I wanted to do.”
Once he arrived at the house, Rivera said “the smoke was coming so fast” and he pushed the woman aside while grabbing the man inside.
He noticed that the burning insulation was already falling on the man’s back, and when he asked for help again, Rivera grabbed the man’s hands and arms – which were badly burned, according to Morning Call.
“I feel bad that I had to pull him like that, but I wasn’t going to leave him in there,” Rivera said.
“I’m not going to ignore someone who’s crying for help,” he continued in his remarks to the Republican Herald.
“It would be on my conscience that I left him there if I didn’t do anything or at least try.”
The owner has since been identified as Raul Ramirez, who was transported by helicopter to a hospital with a burn unit.
His partner, Ebony Floriman, also suffered from smoke inhalation, his nephew told Morning Call.
Firefighters are currently investigating the cause of the massive fire, which also displaced 20 people and damaged four homes.
New York Post
