The quick-thinking actions of neighbours on Monday helped save a Dominion, N.S., man whose house was on fire.
The fire started shortly after 4 p.m. Ryan Anderson lives next door and heard a noise he thought was coming from his back step.
“We have a raccoon problem here and I thought I heard the garbage bag rattling, but it ended up being his siding melting off his house,” Anderson says. “I ran through my house, told my girlfriend to call 911 and I ran out the door and started kicking his front door in.”
The homeowner was inside sleeping. Anderson says he could see flames shooting out of the kitchen window upstairs.
“I know the man is a bad diabetic and he could have passed out,” Anderson says. “I know he's a deep sleeper. Even us kicking at his door, he wasn't out of his room.”
The heat was so intense that it melted the siding off of part of Anderson's home as well. Four fire departments from Dominion, Glace Bay, Reserve and Scotchtown were needed to fight the inferno.
“If that had of happened any other time, other than the day time, it could have had a different outcome,” says firefighter Eric Spencer.
The homeowners were too shaken up to speak with CTV News on camera, but say they’re grateful for their neighbours who came to the rescue.
“I feel very sad for my neighbours to just lose everything so fast, but most of all grateful they're O.K.,” says neighbour Karen Vanderlinden. “The whole thing was a blaze and smoke and fire trucks around. It was shocking how fast things can happen.”
“I'm happy that the outcome is the way it went down. No animals, no family got hurt. Nobody got hurt,” says Ryan Anderson.
The family did have insurance, but police say the home will have to be demolished.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Kyle Moore.
