A man, woman, and their dog are lucky to be alive after a garbage collector bravely evacuated them from their burning home in Tipton, England. Steve Whitehouse is being hailed a hero for his quick thinking and selfless actions which, undoubtedly, helped save the trio from the massive blaze.
Garbage collector saw fire, scaled townhome up to balcony three times to save woman, dog, and man
Whitehouse and his co-worker, Kevin Marriott, were doing their usual waste collection rounds on Tuesday morning, Feb. 27, when they spotted a small brick townhome engulfed in flames. Immediately, Whitehouse sprung into action, as per Good News Network.
“I saw a young woman screaming from the balcony and all I could think was that I needed to get to her as quickly as possible,” Whitehouse shared.
Without hesitation, Whitehouse climbed up the home’s first-floor balcony and carried the woman down to safety. But when he went back up to rescue a frantic young man, he found the latter screaming his dog’s name.
Whitehouse quickly wrapped the pup with a blanket, handed him over to the young man, and climbed down. Then, he requested the man to throw the dog for him to catch. Finally, Whitehouse climbed the balcony a third time to evacuate the man.
As Whitehouse executed his rescue mission, his colleague, Marriott went door to door alerting those who lived next to the burning home of the ongoing blaze.
Shortly after, firefighters arrived at the scene and administered first aid to the man, who suffered smoke inhalation. The dog had also inhaled smoke and was therefore given oxygen therapy, as per BBC.
Tipton incident commander Chris Green applauded Whitehouse for his life-saving actions. He stated, “I have no doubt that without Steve’s incredible bravery, the outcome could have been very different. I have no idea how he managed to do what he did. It was heroic. The fire and smoke were coming out of the property’s rear door like a blow torch.”
Investigations into the incident revealed an e-bike’s lithium-ion battery exploded, starting the fire.
