Photo: E+
A 92-year-old California man is rescued from his burning home by his nextdoor neighbor. Harold Kaler was sitting in his electric recliner in his home in Fair Oaks, California, earlier this week when a fire started in the home’s garage. The fire caused the power to go out, so Kaler wasn’t able to prop the chair back up. "I would have just sat there,” Kaler says. “I couldn't get out of the chair.” And even if he could, he has mobility issues and usually uses a ramp in the garage to leave the house, and it was engulfed in flames.
Kaler sat there helplessly stuck in his recliner, watching smoke seep through the crack around the garage door. Fortunately, help arrived soon. Kaler’s nextdoor neighbor, Erik Bean was alerted to the fire by another neighbor, grabbed a fire extinguisher, and rushed to help. “Luckily the door wasn’t locked,” Bean says. “Smoke was billowing into the garage and the door itself to the garage was glowing red.”
Bean helped Kaler out of his recliner, grabbed the elderly man’s walker, and helped him get safely out of the house, but he still doesn’t consider himself a hero. "I think that's very kind, but very overstated,” Bean says. “It was just the right thing to do." But Kaler is grateful for his neighbor’s quick response. "He got me up and got me out of the place,” says Kaler. “And I was really thankful for that.”
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