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Dramatic video captured a heroic neighbor braving massive plumes of black smoke to save a man from his burning home in Pennsylvania over the weekend.
In a video captured by Storyful, Oscar Rivera, aged 48, was spotted standing on a roof and reaching through an attic window of a Minersville residence on Sunday. His heroic act involved rescuing a man by the arm and pulling him to safety, all while black smoke filled the air around 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.
Just a few feet away, a woman could also be seen lying on the neighboring house’s roof, and Rivera swiftly jumped over to check on her as well.
Meanwhile, his young children “stood at the door watching,” according to Huth, who came upon the scene on her way home on Sunday.
The massive three-alarm fire was reported at around 12:45 p.m. that day, Morning Call reports.
At the time, Rivera was playing with his children in the backyard when he said they heard a “boom,” he told WFMZ.
Immediately after, Rivera hurried to his front yard only to discover a neighboring house engulfed in flames. A man was trapped inside, with a woman desperately trying to assist him.
“I looked at the guy, he was on top of the roof, like on the window sticking out saying ‘Help me, help me!’”
The fire department was already on its way, but Rivera said he was worried crews may not make it in time.
Rivera sprang into action, seizing a ladder and grasping onto an eave of the adjacent house. With remarkable agility, he ascended to a ledge and leaped onto the roof of the burning structure, as detailed in the Republican Herald.
“At the moment, I wasn’t scared, I just wanted to save him,” Rivera said. “That’s what I wanted to do.”
Once he reached the home, Rivera said “smoke was coming so fast,” and he moved the woman aside as he grabbed for the man inside.
He noticed that burning insulation was already falling on the man’s back, and when he again pleaded for help, Rivera grabbed at 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 somebody calling 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 homeowner has since been identified as Raul Ramirez, who was flown by helicopter to a hospital with a burn unit.
His partner, Ebony Floriman, also suffered from smoke inhalation, her nephew told Morning Call.
Fire crews are now investigating the cause of the massive blaze, which also displaced 20 people and damaged four homes.
