BOSTON (WHDH) - Fourteen people were displaced after heavy fire tore threw a building a Tremont Street Wednesday morning.
One person was transported to the hospital as a precaution.
7News spoke with a neighbor, Socrate Joseph, who said he went to the apartment where the fire started, on the second floor, and helped guide that apartment’s occupant, a legally blind woman, out to firefighters and safety.
“I proceeded to grab her hand but she was fighting back. She did not want to come out, so in that moment I just yanked her, put her over my shoulder. I was climbing down the steps with her, right? That’s when one of the firefighters came and then they took her from me,” Joseph said.
Geneva Fuller, 79, was taken to the hospital where she was treated for smoke inhalation.
Fuller’s son, Keith Patterson, said he was thankful Joseph was there to help his mother out.
“He was literally a hero among us, a good Samaritan, and if it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I would be having this conversation with you right now,” Patterson said.
Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Burke posted to social media thanking Joseph for rescuing Fuller.
“His quick actions of carrying his neighbor to an exit and passing her to responding firefighters were heroic and undoubtedly saved her life in a rapidly progressing fire,” Burke said. “As always, thank you to our firefighters for quickly extinguishing this fire at great personal risk as they do every day they come to work.”
The fire was put out by crews by 4 a.m. The Red Cross is helping the displaced residents.
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