Maine police are trying to identify the ‘hero’ who saved people from a burning house

A Maine police department is on the hunt for the ‘hero’ who helped an officer rescue a father and daughter from the top of a house that caught fire on Tuesday night.

Just before 10 p.m., police were alerted that a house at 1 Franklin St. in Hallowell had caught fire, local police said in a Facebook post. Two people who lived in the house were stuck on the roof.

A civilian man saw the trapped couple and brought a ladder to the house to help people down from the roof, police said. With the help of a policeman, the civilian got the people on the roof to safety without hurting themselves.

WMTW reported that the two people rescued were Peter and Lilli Schumacher, a father and daughter who lived at the home. Schumacher is reportedly a volunteer firefighter and former city councilman.

The Hallowell Police Department is asking anyone who knows the identity of the civilian rescuer to message police on Facebook.

“If it hadn’t been for the police and [the] passing not putting the scale, it could have been much worse. Very lucky to see how it all turned out,” Hallowell Fire Lt. Logan Bennett told reporters.

The fire was so large that fire crews from Augusta, Gardiner, Farmingdale, Manchester, Randolph and Pittston were called in to help Hallowell firefighters put it out. News Center Maine reported the home was a total loss.

The Maine Office of the Fire Marshal is investigating the fire.