CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, S.C. — Volunteer firefighter Willie Williams thinks someone must have been looking out for a Chesterfield County family Thursday.
"I guess the Lord sent me and Chris there," Williams said.
Williams and Chris Jordan were in a wrecker truck, having just picked up Williams' car from a home nearby.
They were driving down Coon Creek Road when Jordan noticed smoke.
"We drove by and I saw smoke coming from the eaves of the home. I said, 'We're turning around,'" Jordan said.
Williams is a member of the High Point Volunteer Fire Department with more than 30 years of experience, while Jordan is a former firefighter and paramedic.
Neither of them had any gear or safety equipment, only flashlights.
One went to the front door, the other the back,
They beat on the doors, but no one responded.
Both entered the home and Williams cut the circuit breakers.
"All I could see was the flame from the stove and all four burners," Williams said.
"You couldn't see nothing. It was terrible,” Jordan said. “I had my shirt up over my nose. It was hard to breathe.”
It was the stove in Tierra Martin's kitchen that nearly killed her children and her sister.
The family had only been in the mobile home for a week and was trying to get the power turned back on after it had been cut off.
However, the stove was left on, all four eyes burning and the oven door open before the stove ignited.
"Thank God for neighbors who care, who are concerned," Martin said.
Since the house had no power, Martin went to the library to charge her phone and left two of her children with her 19-year-old sister, Hannah Lindsey.
"This could have been my last day here," Lindsey said.
In total blackness, Jordan walked by a couch, and he couldn't see the small child less than two feet away from him.
"Something grabs me on the arm and tugs my arm, and I bent down and it's a little kid sitting on the sofa," Jordan said.
Jordan swept up 3-year-old Gabriel and carried him outside.
Williams found Lindsey and a 1-year-old girl in a bedroom.
"When I woke up, there was an officer standing over me and he said, ‘Get up! Come on!' and he said the house is fixin' to burn down," Lindsey said.
Within minutes, deputies and emergency medical technicians were there outside checking the children and wrapping them in blankets.
Jordan and Williams denied any acts of heroism and said anyone would do what they did.
"Just the right place at the right time," Jordan said.
Martin returned home from the library to find her sister and her children all outside and emergency vehicles everywhere.
"It was very scary. I realized I could have lost my two children and my sister," Martin said.
The house did not have a working smoke detector, which could have alerted them to the kitchen fire sooner.
"You've got to have a smoke detector that works," Williams said. "Otherwise, what's the point of having it?"
The family chose to stay in the home, which has smoke damage, and some fire damage to the kitchen.
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