A San Diego-area couple is searching for their New Year's Eve hero -- a man who banged on their door after midnight, waking them up and saving them from a potentially deadly house fire.
“If he had not noticed it and if it had continued to burn, we would have had a very serious fire. The roof would have probably burned and caved in on us,” Rod Davis told NBC 7.
Santee Fire Department Battalion Chief Tim Stuber said crews responded to the couple's home around 5 a.m. on New Year's Day when a luminary landed on the roof of the home, setting the roof on fire.
Investigators say the Santee couple living at the home were in a 'dead sleep' when they were woken up by a male pounding on their door.
Judy Davis said she and her husband woke up to someone banging on their door, and immediately thought the person was a robber or some sort of burglar trying to get into their home.
“We watched the ball drop and went to sleep and then all of a sudden I just hear this pounding on the door,” Judy explained. She said she kept hearing somebody scream ‘wake up! There’s a fire in your house!’
After a while, however, the couple smelled smoke. Once they walked out of the house, they found the roof of their house on fire.
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Judy and her husband are certain that if their hero had not woken them up and kept banging on the door, they may not be here by now. The fire could have spread, the roof could have collapsed, and they may not be alive right now.
Stuber said the fire could have spread from the roof, and any time crews are dealing with a fire on the roof of a home, it's a dangerous situation. Santee Fire Dept said they are unclear who knocked on the couple's door.
"He walked over to the back gate and I told him 'Thank you, God Bless you!' I didn't even get this man's name. And all I really want to tell him is god bless him - this man is my hero," Judy said.
The couple are now looking for the Good Samaritan that saved their lives in hopes of thanking him for what he did for them.
"You can't put a price tag on anything like that," Judy added.
If you know the Good Samaritan who helped the couple, call NBC7 at (619) 578-0201.
