Quick-thinking neighbors credited with saving family from South Brunswick house fire
SOUTH BRUNSWICK, N.J. -- Two good Samaritans are being credited with saving a family from a house fire.
One of those heroes is in his 80s.
"Like I reached here, it looked like I saw fog," Santo Livio said.
The 85-year-old says he has always been an early riser. On Wednesday morning, he was up at 5:30 checking his Kendall Park yard, when he saw an ominous cloud hanging over his neighbor's house.
And he wasn't the only one who found it odd.
"I yelled to her, 'Does that look like a fire to you on that side?' And she says, 'Yes,'" Livio said.
Both Livio and the woman, who happened to be out on a morning walk, ran across Kingsley Road. While she knocked on the front door, he banged on the windows before returning to his house to call 911.
"She said, 'Get out. There is a fire,' and I heard her say that. The gentleman turned around and said, 'What fire?' She says, 'Your house on this side.' He looked and he said, 'Oh God,'" Livio said.
Not long after the family escaped, the garage burst into flames. Fifty firefighters from Kendall Park and nearby towns quickly responded and got it under control.
Livio said a couple lived in the home with their four children.
"Couldn't thank me enough. He kept saying, 'If you and the young lady didn't do it, I don't know what would have happened because we were sleeping,'" Livio said.
As news of the rescue spread, many have called Livio and the other woman who jumped into action heroes.
But the 85-year-old said he doesn't see it that way at all.
"I'm a neighbor that helped and I'm sure somebody would do the same for me. At least, I hope they would have," Livio said.
A hero? No.
But a neighbor? Yes.
