PITTSTON - Anthony Pupa says he reacted how anyone else would have if they saw a neighbor and infant baby stranded on the second floor of a burning home.
That reaction came around 7:15 a.m. Tuesday when Pupa and another neighbor, Pete Scarantino, spotted Jennifer Guasto and her one-year-old son, Christian Wasko, on the first-floor roof of the burning home at 140 Tompkins St.
The duo hoisted a ladder to the roof, then Scarantino hustled up to grab Wasko. He relayed the infant to Pupa while Scarantino went back up the ladder to guide Guasto down to safety.
"That's all, nothing special," the 60-year-old Pupa said Tuesday afternoon. "You do what you have to do."
Guasto and Wasko were taken to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, fire Chief Frank Roman said. They were soon released, he said.
Roman said firefighters encountered flames shooting 10 to 12 feet out the first-floor windows of the two-story, single-family home.
Crews immediately went to rescue Guasto and Wasko, but her neighbors had already rescued the two. The firefighters soon extinguished the flames, Roman said. No firefighters were injured.
But the blaze left the home destroyed, The fire is under investigation. It does not appear to be suspicious, Roman said.
Guasto and Wasko were sleeping when the flames broke out, the chief said. Guasto's parents also live at the home, but they were not home when the fire started.
The mother and infant detected the fire and climbed to the roof of the first-floor porch, where Pupa and Scarantino stepped in.
Pupa called 911 after smelling smoke after 7 a.m.
"I heard the windows smash," he said. "I went outside and I saw Jen and the baby on the roof."
Scarantino grabbed a ladder and ran to the burning home. Pupa, the larger of the two men, held the ladder for Scarantino to grab the infant.
"I held the baby and then (Scarantino) went up and got Jennifer," Pupa said.
Pupa lives three houses away from Jennifer's home in the Oregon section of the city and has known her family long before Tuesday's fire. Pupa said anyone in the tight-knit neighborhood would have done the same for another neighbor.
"We all know our neighbors up there," he said.
