WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI – An Ypsilanti Township man is alive thanks to the selfless actions of a neighbor who ran into a burning home and pulled him out.
“I couldn’t just let him die in there,” said the neighbor D. Bates on Tuesday, Oct. 4, recalling the Friday afternoon fire.
Fire crews were called at 1:09 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30 to a reported house on fire in the 5000 block of Willowbridge Road after heavy flames erupted from the structure, according to the Ypsilanti Township Fire Department.
Bates, who works as a Washtenaw County Jail deputy, was off duty at home when a neighbor told him about the fire. The neighbor also told him the homeowner had gone inside and not returned, he said.
“I didn’t really have a chance to think. I just ran in and could hear him yelling for help,” Bates said.
Flames all around him, Bates found the man facedown on the kitchen floor, quickly grabbed him and dragged him out as he heard the celling start coming down, he said.
“It was really hot in there and I could (feel) the ceiling start to give way, so I just looked at him and said, ‘We gotta go,’” Bates said.
Bates got the man out of the house as paramedics arrived at the scene to begin treating him for burns, he said.
Fire crews arrived soon after to extinguish the blaze, which caused an estimated $250,000 in damage, officials said.
While the home itself is still standing, it is currently uninhabitable as every room in the home suffered significant flame, smoke and water damage, officials said.
The homeowner suffered minor injuries in the fire and was taken to an area hospital for emergency medical treatment, officials said. No other information about the homeowner, including his name or age, was released.
The cause of the fire is unknown and still under investigation. The Ypsilanti Fire Department and Superior Township Fire Department assisted at the scene.
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