4 good Samaritans rescue 104-year-old woman from burning home
WESTON, Ga. (WALB/Gray News) - Fewer than 70 people call Weston, Georgia, home. So few reside there, neighbors may not even notice when a house goes up in flames.
That was the case when a house off State Route 520 caught fire with a 104-year-old home hospice patient trapped inside.
The woman’s family doesn’t want her identity known, but they do want to recognize the four strangers who saved her.
“I was driving by and I saw smoke coming out of the vent on the side of the house. I was like, ‘Dad, that’s not just the exhaust vent. That’s a fire,’” said Mason Newell, one of the rescuers.
“My wife was on the phone with 911, and we just kept banging on the window and stuff like that,” said Mason Newell’s father, Rick Newell. “We finally got to the backside of the house and started banging on a corner window, and we heard someone crying out for help. So, we were like, ‘Wow, there is someone in here and we have got to get them out. We have to do something.’”
The woman on oxygen was trapped inside in bed, unable to get out as smoke filled her home and with flames spreading quickly.
Two other people ing by, Walter Willoughby and Ben Hughes, also rushed to help.
Willoughby and Hughes originally entered through the front door before realizing that there was too much smoke and flames to continue. They then decided to try to enter a window instead.
“The problem was that there was plywood on the window, so I ripped that off,” Hughes said. “Rick had a sledgehammer that he commandeered from somewhere. I don’t know where he got it, but Rick hands me the sledgehammer, I bust through the window and clear it all out on the sides. Rick was the first one in and I followed after him. We assessed the situation. She wasn’t hooked up to anything. Then we said, ‘Hey, are you guys ready? She’s coming out.’ We both grabbed her, put her out the window and handed her to Mason and Walt, who carried her to the back of Walt’s truck.”
The Newells, Willoughby and Hughes all became new friends with each other that day. They’re now Facebook friends. Hughes even has plans to go to an Auburn football game with Mason Newell this fall.
As for the woman who was rescued, she is doing fine and is expected to be returning home soon.
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