JEFFERSON COUNTY, AL (WBRC) -
Two brothers say they pulled out their neighbor from her burning home after waking up to find her house engulfed in flames.
A two-unit apartment on Williamsburg Drive in Roebuck caught on fire around 3 a.m. Wednesday. By the time firefighters got to the scene, it was fully involved.
One of the rescuers, Brandon Wills, said he woke up early this morning to a loud explosion and saw his neighbor's house on fire.
"Me and my brother ran out and went down there. We couldn't get through the front so we ran to the back and it was the last was so thick they had to get a sledgehammer to break the door and once we got to her we had to dig her out because there was so much stuff," Wills said.
He said the woman wasn't breathing or conscious when he and his brother pulled her out.
"She wasn't breathing, eyes wide open, bunch of black smoke coming out of her mouth," Jessie Newsome said.
Newsome and Wills say they dragged the woman by her feet to the porch where a police officer met them and started performing CPR. The woman was taken by ambulance to UAB Hospital, where she is reportedly in stable condition.
An officer was also treated at the fire and rescue truck at the scene.
"We treated some police officers with oxygen for smoke inhalation because they were first on the scene and helping with rescue of the victim," Battalion Chief Time Love said.
Love says it took firefighters 30 minutes to put out the flames. Officials have determined the fire started from a space heater.
With temperatures dropping this weekend, firefighters ask everyone to remember to keep space heaters at least three feet away from anything that could catch fire.
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Firefighters were still at the scene of the duplex fire in Roebuck at daylight Wednesday. Source: Clare Huddleston
Brothers Brandon Wills and Jessie Newsome rescued their neighbor from her burning home early Wednesday morning. Source: Greg Long
This photo shows the charred remains of the two-unit apartment that caught on fire early Wednesday. Officials say a space heater started the fire. Source: Clare Huddleston
The fire started at a home on Williamsburg Drive around 3 a.m. Wednesday. Source: Clare Huddleston
