Global Courant
An 85-year-old New Jersey man and an early morning walker are hailed by police for saving the life of a sleeping family in a house that caught fire.
Kendall Park’s Santo Livio, who “stated that after a lifetime of getting up early for work, he also woke up early when he retired,” was in the right place at the right time on Wednesday when he “puffed up with smoke resembling fog” emanated from the garage of a home on Kingsley Road, according to the South Brunswick Township Police Department.
“Uncertain whether he saw smoke or fog, he stepped outside and saw a woman walking down the street at around 5:30 a.m.,” police said in a statement. He asked her if it looked like smoke, and she said yes, whereupon they both ran to the house and tried to warn the occupants, banging on the door and windows.
“Mr. Livio then called 9-1-1 as residents left the home, and the unidentified woman left the scene in the commotion of the fire response,” police added. “Mr. Livio stated that the residents later came to his house to thank him for warning them about the fire, allowing them to safely leave the house.”
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The house that caught fire in Kendall Park, New Jersey, on Wednesday, May 31. (South Brunswick Township Police Department)
Inside the home were a father and his four children, while the mother was away at the time to work as a nurse at night, ABC News reports.
“When I came back to my door, I saw the people who lived in the house come out and she told them that their house was on fire,” Livio told the network, describing a conversation between the father and the unidentified woman. “And the man said, ‘What kind of fire?’ And she says, “Look.” He looked up and said, ‘Oh my god.'”
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Smoke was billowing from the home’s garage, South Brunswick Township Police say. (Google Maps)
Livio also said that he calls himself a “good neighbor” and that “I hope what I did for someone, they would do the same for me.”
South Brunswick Township Police said the family was “sleeping in the house and had no idea the house was on fire when they heard banging on their front door and bedroom windows.”
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The South Brunswick Township Police Department says it took several fire departments to put out the blaze. (Google Maps)
“It took 50 firefighters from all three township fire departments, the Kendall Park Fire Department, the Monmouth Junction Fire Department and the Kingston Fire Department, 20 minutes to put out the blaze,” police said. “The fire appears to have started in the garage, but a source and confirmation of its place of origin await further investigation by the Fire Safety Bureau.”
Police Chief Raymond Hayducka said: “I credit Mr. Livio, along with the unknown woman, and their quick thinking and heroic actions, for saving the family.”
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.
