Topeka KS Delivery Driver Spots Fire Threatening Girls' Home

EatStreet driver Justin Raines was out on a delivery about 1 p.m. Dec. 15 when a typical day turned into something more.

As he turned from S.W. 6th onto S.W. Roosevelt, he noticed a fire burning in a front yard. His actions next make him responsible for alerting two young girls of a fire that was spreading toward their house.—

When Raines saw the flames, he found it odd that it seemed as if the fire was burning in a straight line near the curb. He went to make his delivery, then headed back the way he came, feeling concerned about the fire.

Raines said he noticed the fire had spread halfway up the yard and was moving closer to the house.

"I stopped my car on Roosevelt and looked around to see if there was anyone outside, and I didn't see anyone," Raines said. "I didn't panic at first because I thought, 'Well, maybe they are out back.' "

Raines knocked on the door of the house where the fire was spreading but received no answer. So Raines went next door to a house where the fire was starting to inch closer to its yard.

A 7-year old girl, Londyn Houston, answered the door, and Raines pointed out the fire to her. She became panicked once she saw the fire.

"I told her to wait by the door and I have 911 on the phone," Raines said.

Houston's sister, Aryanna Murphy, 12, also was home during the fire.

Raines said Aryanna had the idea to grab a baby pool located on the side of the house to help put out the fire that was spreading to the tree.

Topeka firefighters eventually arrived at the scene to put out the fire, and Raines said he was glad everyone was safe.

"Their Christmas tree was right in the front there," Raines said. "It's the holidays, and you don't want to see anything like that happen around the holidays."

It isn't known how the fire started.

Houston and Murphy's mother, Kristen Erhardt, was at work during the incident but received a call from Murphy about the fire. Erhardt said she has taught her girls not to answer the door to strangers, but on that particular day they were waiting for their grandma to pick them up.

"I rushed home from work," Erhardt said. "I'm very thankful that he was knocking on my door for them. He obviously didn't know who was in the house."

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