Neighbors of a 97-year-old North Carolina woman banded together to rescue her from her burning home, picking her up and hauling her away from the flames in footage caught on camera.
“I think she just didn’t know what was going on. I think she was in shock,” said neighbor Robert Chavis. “The whole place was pretty much done.”
Chavis said he saw smoke billowing out from the home’s garage, and that’s when his instincts kicked in.
“Four or five of us probably just grabbed her and pulled her over here to the hill, to safety,” Chavis said.
He said within a matter of minutes, the entire house was engulfed in flames that spread to surrounding homes. The woman was taken to the hospital in critical condition, but has improved.
“You always say what you would do or could do but you never know what you can do until you’re put in that situation,” Chavis said.
Investigators say an electrical malfunction caused the fire.