On Friday, a crew worked to make sure a fire couldn’t be rekindled.
Joshua Schaffer was painting a neighboring home Thursday when the fire started.
“It smelled like tar like tires burning,” he remembered. “I thought someone may be burning trash. Didn’t know. I saw the neighbor, Eric, his dad’s name is Mike, they took off running. I took off following cause I saw the smoke coming up. Mike, the dad, and Eric ran up on the porch and knocked on the door. Nobody answered. I started knocking really hard like the police would. I saw the man coming down the stairs. He didn’t look like he knew where he was. He wouldn’t open the door. He didn’t realize the house was on fire.”
Joshua knocked the door open so he and Eric could pull the man out.
“The flames were so hot. He was hot to the touch,” Joshua said. “I can’t explain how hot the fire and the flames were. It was unbearable. The fire was coming up through the bottom of the floor. I tried to run back in with my shirt over my face. I yelled if anybody was there. Nobody answered. He looked at me confused and said, ‘Oh, my house is on fire.'”