A passerby helped a volunteer firefighter from Clover rescue a woman trapped inside a burning home Monday.
Clover Firefighter Luke Caldwell was alerted to the Love Road fire while he was at home nearby.
“I noticed fire coming from one side of the structure, and I called out trying to find the lady, because I knew there was an entrapment,” Caldwell told the Charlotte Observer.
Passerby Charlie Kennedy stopped when he noticed the fire.
Kennedy was able to see the woman lying on the floor and Caldwell, who donned his PPE, went inside.
“She was maybe 5 feet inside the house,” Caldwell said. “I made the decision to try to save her, and I covered my nose and mouth and went in.”
He pulled outside just as fire crews arrived.
Clover Fire Chief Charlie Love praised Kennedy, a former police officer, for helping.
“He wasn’t even a member of our fire department,” Love said. “He was just riding by and saw the smoke.”
A total of five fire departments responded to the scene and brough the fire under control in two hours.
