The sound of his mother screaming was a wake-up call for William Hatten.
The 18-year-old was snoozing at his Columbia home a little after 9 Tuesday morning when his mom, Sharlene Brown, yelled that their neighbor's house was on fire.
"She said, 'Go get him out of the house,'" he said.
Hatten did as he was told - and rescued 66-year-old Abraham Kennedy.
If it had not been for Hatten, Kennedy probably would not have made it, said Columbia Fire Department Battalion 2 Chief Rocky Branham.
"I feel sure the gentleman saved his life," Branham said.
The fire that gutted the house still is under investigation.
Officials also are trying to determine a point of origin of the fire that gutted the house and caused $40,000 worth of damage, Branham said.
Hatten was relaxing Tuesday evening at his home, thinking about the morning's events.
His mother was outside.
When she did not see Kennedy on his porch, where he usually was, she became concerned.
Then she saw the smoke and began yelling.
"When my mouth gets started, it gets loud," she said.
Wearing a T-shirt and pajama bottoms, Hatten ran across the street to Kennedy's home.
He jumped over the locked front gate and burst through the front door.
He said he saw nothing but smoke and the glow of the fire nearby.
"It was bad," Hatten said. "I had to duck down to see."
Through the haze, Hatten saw the 66-year-old man standing in the living room doorway.
He grabbed Kennedy by his belt loop and told him they had to get out.
"He was trying to resist because he was trying to put the fire out and save his house," Hatten said.
"I said, 'Come on, come on, we can rebuild the house.'"
After escaping to the front porch, the two sat for a minute so Kennedy could catch his breath.
But Kennedy was determined to get back inside to save the house, which had belonged to his mother.
The house, in which he lived alone, was the only home he had ever known, Brown said.
When Kennedy tried again to return to the house, "I had to yank him" by the waist, Hatten said.
When Brown saw her son and neighbor emerge safely, she said a quick prayer.
She said, '"Oh, thank you, Jesus,' and then I told them to get off the porch."
Kennedy is staying with his daughter and his dog is living with his sister-in-law, Alma Kennedy, who praised Hatten.
"He did a good job," she said.
Hatten, who just graduated from Eau Claire High School, is getting ready to go into the Air Force next week.
He said he never thought about turning his back on his neighbor and leaving him to the mercy of the fire.
"I wouldn't want nobody to leave me," Hatten said.
Distributed by the Associated Press
