Two residents of a large house fire in a New Jersey community survived thanks to neighbors who pulled them to safety, West Deptford police said.
“The whole front of the house was just a fireball,” Jim Miller, who jumped out of bed and ran across the street, told CBS Philadelphia.
The fire broke out just before 6 a.m. Saturday at a home in West Deptford Township.
Fire officials said when they arrived, the home was fully engulfed in flames, and neighbors reported that the couple living there had been pulled from the home.
“We started banging on the basement window, we broke it down, and suddenly we heard a woman’s voice saying, ‘We’re here, we’re here.’ Where are we going?” Where are you?” Miller shared the information with CBS Philadelphia.
Miller wasn’t the only neighbor who stepped in to help.
He told CBS Philadelphia that another neighbor joined him as he pushed his way through the bushes to the back of his house.
Another neighbor, Tom Carey, woke up to the sound of his dog barking and his wife could see the light from her window, CBS Philadelphia reported.
Carrie ran outside, jumped over a small fence and began yelling at her neighbors to get out. Meanwhile, his wife Rachel ran down the street to warn other neighbors.
“I went to the back door and started banging on the door, banging on the windows, literally anything that made noise,” Carey told CBS Philadelphia.
“They were like family, very kind and welcomed us with open arms as soon as we moved in,” Rachel Carey added.
Investigators told CBS Philadelphia that it took firefighters more than an hour and a half to bring the blaze under control and that the home was likely a total loss.
The West Deptford Fire Chief told CBS Philadelphia that the neighbors were the true heroes and that things could have ended differently had they not jumped in to help.
“That’s what our neighbors are doing, and that’s what we’re doing,” Miller said. “I’m really happy to be there and I’d love to do it again.”
First responders transported the couple to a local hospital for treatment.
Their condition is unknown at this time and the cause of the fire is under investigation.
Woodbury Fire Department and West Deptford Fire Chief did not respond to FOX News Digital’s requests for comment.
