CLEVELAND — In the early hours of Sunday morning, Doug DeRose heard popping noises coming from outside his window, soon to find flames emerging from his neighbor's home on West 44th Street.
“It was nothing but black smoke, it was rolling between the two houses,” DeRose said.
DeRose started to dial 911, then he heard yelling for help.
“We just kind of dropped the phone and everything and I went into the garage and got a ladder,” DeRose said. “I had an extension ladder. I raised it over the fence and put it up against the house.”
DeRose saved his neighbor's life. He got him down safely before Cleveland Fire arrived.
“We certainly don’t encourage people to go towards a house on fire, but in this situation, he was able to go and get his neighbor from his second story window,” said Lieutenant Mike Norman of the Cleveland Fire Department.
DeRose attributes his organized garage, for the swift, life-saving rescue.
“I guess I picked that up from my dad, but it really paid off in the end to just be able to go in and grab the ladder off the wall without having to move anything,” he added.
The cause of the fire is still unknown, three dogs died and there’s around $50,000 worth of damage. Norman wants to remind residents that it’s crucial to change batteries this time of year.
“We just had daylight saving time,” Norman said. “You want to make sure when you change your clocks change that smoke alarms. You need to make sure those smoke alarms are working. That’s an important piece for us as we try to keep people safe.”
The damages to the home are repairable but having a selfless neighbor, that's irreplaceable.
“It’s one thing to wake a Cleveland firefighter up in the middle the night, we are trained we are equipped for that sort of thing, but what a great neighbor to come and save his neighbor's life,” said Norman.
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