Good samaritans rescue couple from burning home: “That’s what neighbors do”

KYW

By Ryan Hughes, Chase Morrison

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    WEST DEPTFORD, New Jersey (KYW) — Towering flames raged out of control after a home in West Deptford caught fire with a husband and wife still inside.

“That whole front of the house, it was just a ball of flames,” said Jim Miller, who jumped out of bed and ran across the street.

It was just before 6 a.m. Saturday when Miller said he heard his daughter scream that the neighbor’s home, on the 100 block of Chestnut Street, was engulfed in flames.

“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?” recalled Miller.

At the same time, Miller said another neighbor ran over. They pushed their way through bushes to get to the back of the house, and he said they found the woman just outside the basement door screaming, but her husband was inside near the steps overcome with smoke.

“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.

Tom Carey woke up to his dog barking, and his wife could see the glow from their window. Carey ran outside, jumped over a small fence, and started screaming for his next-door neighbors to get out. His wife, Rachel, ran down the street trying to alert other neighbors.

“I went to the back door and just started banging on the door, banging on the windows, literally anything to make noise,” Carey said.

“They’re like family, like they’re so nice and they welcomed us with open arms as soon as we moved in,” Rachel Carey said.

Firefighters pulled up moments later and started attacking the flames. The couple was rushed to a hospital. Neighbors said they suffered minor burns and smoke inhalation, but they’re recovering.

“I’m just happy that they’re safe,” Carey said.

It took firefighters more than an hour and a half to get the fire under control. The home is likely a complete loss, but the neighbors proved, no matter what, they have each other’s back.

“That’s what neighbors do, that’s what we do,” Miller said. “I’m just glad I was there and I’d do it again.”

The West Deptford Fire Chief called the neighbors true heroes and said this may have ended differently had they not jumped in to help.

Investigators are still working to determine what caused the fire.

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