HARFORD COUNTY, Md. — The flames climbed from the porch into the attic of the house on Creek View Court in Street, Maryland as the lone person in the house, an unsuspecting woman who was bathing in the basement, heard the dog barking and got out of the tub to check on it.
“She came out of the bathroom and the whole house was so smokey, she couldn’t see down the hallway,” said Steven Chavis, who also lives there, but wasn’t home at the time, “She dropped her cell phone and couldn’t find it on the floor.”
Amazon driver helps woman escape burning home with 3 pets in Harford County
As the woman scrambled to save her two cats and her dog, help arrived in the form of an Amazon delivery driver who was driving by.
“She knocked on that side door and the 84-year-old occupant inside came to the door and that’s when she opened it and pulled her out,” said Master Deputy State Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire, “There is no doubt that what she did was very heroic.”
Investigators believe the fire started after the woman placed some discarded ashes from a wood stove on her front porch.
Those ashes, with no red embers apparent, smoldered for nearly three hours before igniting the first flames.
But it was the driver’s actions in the span of a few minutes that kept a woman determined to save her pets from losing her own life in the process.
“Thank God she had the courage to go running towards the house to help. I mean the house has got propane connected to it. You never know what could have happened,” said Chavis, “That was a blessing. I was thanking God last night. It was just one of those things. Timing was everything yesterday.”
