An off-duty Newton firefighter raced into a burning home Wednesday and saved a family from the fire.
"I was knocking on the door. They weren't answering, so I kicked in the door and they had no idea the house was on fire," firefighter Nick McGrath said.
"I opened up my living room door, and he was like, 'Get out of here. The house is on fire,' and I was like, 'Are you joking? Are you kidding me?'" said Babar Shahzad, who was rescued from the fire.
McGrath, who was off-duty at the time, happened to be driving by minutes after the triple-decker at 10 Auburndale Avenue caught fire.
"I was just on my way home and happened to be driving by and the back of the house was on fire, and there was a woman in the front of the house saying there were kids in the house," McGrath said.
"What would happen if he did not show up on my door at the right moment?" Shahzad said.
Flames raced up the side of the building and melted the side of the two cars parked in the driveway.
"Once I stepped in, I saw the whole curtain was on fire. That was the moment I'm not going to forget my whole life," McGrath said.
Shahzad and his wife salvaged what few items they could from the apartment they shared with their 1-year-old daughter. They said they have nothing but gratitude for the firefighter who answered the call off duty, even though he was off the clock.
"I think I should be grateful to that person for all my life. I can not thank him enough or appreciate him enough," he said.
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