TAMPA, FLA. (WSVN) - A good Samaritan raced to the rescue after seeing a home near Tampa going up in flames with a family trapped inside.
Lorene Whittington was on her way to work with a friend when they passed by the burning home. They hit the brakes and raced to the rescue.
“They were like, ‘Thank God.’ We don’t know what we would have done because they would have died. They would have probably dropped right out that window because there was so much smoke.”
She rushed to help, finding Suzanne Wimer trapped on the other side of a bedroom window.
“He went to the front door and was pounding hard. ‘Your house is on fire. Your house is on fire. Is anybody in there?’ And then we heard somebody at the bedroom window,” said Whittington.
Wimer described the situation inside the home.
“I felt the heat, and the smoke started pouring at me, so I went back into the bedroom and I slammed the door shut. I woke him up, and I started to figure out, ‘OK, where are we going to get out?'” Wimer said.
That’s when Wimer and Whittington met.
Thinking quickly, Whittington pushed the window screen and threw it to the ground before helping Wimer and two others escape to safety.
“I said ‘Push the screen.’ She pushed the screen. I grabbed it, threw it to the ground, and she flopped her leg out and I pulled her out and then I said, ‘Anybody else?’ She said, ‘My husband’ or ‘My boyfriend’. And he flopped his leg out, and I pulled him out,” Whittington said.
Among those rescued was Wimer’s partner, Tom Jones, who, alongside Wimer, got the chance to thank Whittington for stopping to help. A third person was also rescued.
“Literally just was like a blessing. It’s just serendipitous, you know? It’s the only thing I can think of,” said Wimer. “It’s crazy.”
Whittington says she didn’t even think twice.
“I didn’t even think twice. They say, some people say you panic. I didn’t panic. I did not panic and went right to the window where they were and I was going to bust the window. Had she not been able to make it out, I would have busted it.”
The family believes the fire may have been started from an electrical outlet with Christmas lights attached to it on the other side of the window.
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