A homeless man sleeping in the spare bedroom of his friend’s house in Houston managed to save the lives of a woman and her two granddaughters Friday when a “big old boom” woke him while everyone else was sleeping, unaware their home was on fire.
Thomas Smith initially thought the home was being robbed, according to CBS affiliate KHOU. But when he exited his room, he realized the home was on fire. As flames spread in the attic, he opened the door of his friend’s bedroom and found the 66-year-old woman trapped underneath part of the collapsed ceiling.
“I jumped out the bed and ran to her room, and something was on top of her — sheetrock and what not,” he said, according to KPRC2 in Houston.
He freed the unidentified woman and carried her outside. He then, according to KPRC2, went back into the home to rescue the woman’s two young granddaughters.
Though no one was seriously injured, the home suffered extensive damage in the fire; charred walls fill the home and the family’s electronics and clothes are destroyed. Firefighters are investigating the cause but, according to reports, believe it was an electrical fire.
Smith is being hailed a hero by the family, city officials, and the Houston public. But he doesn’t see it that way, saying he did what he thinks anyone would do.
“I wouldn’t say I’m a hero. I’d say thank god for helping us all,” he told KHOU in Houston.
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