Paulsboro’s mayor, who also happens to be a firefighter and a former fire chief in the city, rescued a woman from a house fire he noticed while passing by.
Mayor Gary Stevenson, who has been a member of the Paulsboro Fire Department for more than 30 years, was on his way to a meeting, when he noticed smoke coming from a home that was more than a chimney, according to news web site NJ.com.
After he stopped to check things out, his intuition proved to be right, there was fire in the second floor of the building and started knocking on doors to see if anyone was home, the web site reported.
Woman, who is a shift-worker was asleep at the time Stevenson discovered the fire, about 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, and was unaware of the fire, the website reported. The mayor’s knocking was enough to wake the woman who exited the building safely. Stevenson told the news agency that for unknown reasons, the woman tried to go back into the burning building and he had to prevent her from achieving her goal.
In his dress clothes, Stevenson did a quick search of the building to make sure there’s was no one else inside and called the fire department, letting his colleagues take over, according to the web site.
The fire heavily damaged the building, causing a partial collapse, according to NJ.com, and the displaced resident will be staying with family.
An employee from the gas company was the only injury reported. He was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation, the web site reported.
The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Gloucester County Fire Marshal’s office.
