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New York Post
Pulse-pounding video shows heroic neighbor rescuing man from his burning home
By Melissa Koenig,
13 days ago
Dramatic video captured a heroic neighbor braving massive plumes of black smoke to save a man from his burning home in Pennsylvania over the weekend.
Oscar Rivera, 48, was seen in a video obtained by Storyful standing on a roof and reaching into an attic window of the Minersville home Sunday to grab a man by the arm and pull him out to safety, as black smoke billowed from the yellow house.
“Grab his pants!” Janeen Huth, who captured the ordeal on video, could be heard pleading with Rivera as firefighters grabbed a ladder to reach the homeowner.
Just a few feet away, a woman could also be seen lying on the neighboring house’s roof, and Rivera swiftly jumped over to check on her as well.
Meanwhile, his young children “stood at the door watching,” according to Huth, who came upon the scene on her way home on Sunday.
The massive three-alarm fire was reported at around 12:45 p.m. that day, Morning Call reports.
At the time, Rivera was playing with his children in the backyard when he said they heard a “boom,” he told WFMZ.
He then rushed to his front yard and found the house across the street on fire, with one man stuck inside as a woman desperately trying to pull him out.
“I looked at the guy, he was on top of the roof, like on the window sticking out saying ‘Help me, help me!’”
The fire department was already on its way, but Rivera said he was worried crews may not make it in time.
He grabbed a ladder and grabbed a hold of an eave on the next-door house, hoisted himself up to a ledge, and jumped to the roof of the burning building, the Republican Herald reports.
“At the moment, I wasn’t scared, I just wanted to save him,” Rivera said. “That’s what I wanted to do.”
Once he reached the home, Rivera said “Smoke was coming so fast,” and he moved the woman aside as he grabbed for the man inside.
He noticed that burning insulation was already falling on the man’s back, and when he again pleaded for help, Rivera grabbed at the man’s hands and arms — which were badly burned, according to Morning Call.
“I feel bad that I had to pull him like that, but I wasn’t going to leave him in there,” Rivera said.
“I’m not going to ignore somebody calling for help,” he continued in his remarks to the Republican Herald.
“It would be on my conscience that I left him there if I didn’t do anything or at least try.”
The homeowner has since been identified as Raul Ramirez, who was flown by helicopter to a hospital with a burn unit.
His partner, Ebony Floriman, also suffered from smoke inhalation, her nephew told Morning Call.
Fire crews are now investigating the cause of the massive blaze, which also displaced 20 people and damaged four homes.
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