JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A woman was taken to a hospital Friday morning after an Arlington house fire that left a dog dead.
News4JAX spoke with Lester Driggers, who lives across the street from the home on Brandemere Road South, near Arlington Heights Elementary and Bruce Park.
He said he initially heard some loud noises that sounded like fireworks. That’s when he walked outside, saw smoke and immediately rushed to the door.
“I honestly can’t believe it. I am still baffled by it. It’s the last thing I thought I was going to see this morning when I woke up. I mean I’m completely shook by it,” Driggers said.
He went inside the home and said he helped the older woman out of the house before it caught on fire.
The fire completely charred one of the sides of the home — and left the soffits hanging and melted, and the rocking chair on the front porch also burnt.
Driggers doesn’t want to call himself a hero but admits that he helped make sure the woman in the home was safe.
“I jumped into action and I ran over across the street because I knew the lady that was there was disabled and wasn’t one to get up and get out, by herself, so I did want to make sure. By the time I got to the door and heard her in there, I opened up the door and she was trying to get off the bed, so I pretty much aided her out. [I] tried to get her out the front door as fast as I could.”
Driggers said he was glad he was there to help the woman because if not, he believed it would have been worse.
“You know I just have a lot of family members I love and if they were in that situation, I’d jump up and react in the same way, so that’s just kind of where my heart was,” Driggers said. “Honestly I think the adrenaline took over and I just kind of jumped into action and not at one point did I get scared necessarily.”
JFRD said the fire is under investigation.