A family in New Jersey is singing the praises of an 85-year-old man who owe the elderly hero their lives after he rescued them from a dangerous house fire that happened in the early morning hours of May 31. Not all heroes wear capes and badges, folks.
According to the Daily Caller, at around 5:30 in the morning, Santo Livio said he noticed there was a “puff of smoke” coming from the corner of his neighbor’s garage. He came out outside to get a better look. He then consulted with a woman who walks around the neighborhood on a regular basis who happened to be passing by at the moment.
“I yell to her, I said, ‘Is that a fire, you think, that smoke is?’ And she says yes,” Livio said during an interview with ABC News.
That’s when the pair decided to take action, which no doubt saved the lives of the family inside the home. The woman approached the front dour of the house while Livio banged on the windows before quickly heading back to home to call 911. The smoke soon became a full-on blaze by the time emergency responders showed up on the scene.
BREAKING – Neighbor saves sleeping family, with 4 kids, from early morning house fire. More details to follow. pic.twitter.com/eQRyjCi93M
— So Brunswick PD (@SoBrunswickPD) May 31, 2023
The sleeping family woke up due to the actions taken by Livio and the other neighbor, who were thankfully able to alert them to the fire. The father and his four kids were able to escape from the house without sustaining any injuries. The mother, a nurse, was at work during the time the fire broke out.
“I credit Mr. Livio, along with the unidentified woman, and their quick thinking and heroic actions, with saving the family,” Chief Raymond J. Hayducka went on to tell ABC 7 News.
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Humbly, Livio shrugged off the praise and any consideration of himself as a hero, wanting only to be considered a “good neighbor.”
“I hope that what I did for somebody they would do the same for me,” he told reporters.
As of this writing, investigators are still looking into what might have caused the blaze.
Featured image taken from embedded tweet.