People used a ladder to get into a burning apartment and save their neighbor on Tuesday.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 11:00, the fire happened at a duplex in the 3000 block of Wayne Avenue after 6:30 p.m.
Upon arrival, Dayton fire crews saw smoke and flames coming out of one side of the duplex.
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Before firefighters arrived on scene, neighbors said they jumped in to help.
Perris Smith and Taylaquin Brown said they saw their neighbor banging on his window and yelling that he couldn’t get out.
“There was no way to get to the second story, so pretty much everyone started coming outside trying to figure out what we were gonna do,” Smith said.
Other neighbors quickly grabbed a ladder, put it up to the window, and the men climbed up.
“Made it up to the second story, got the glass open,” Smith said.
Then they crawled into the house and got the man out.
“It was like hot, it was like smokey, cloudy, like burning eyes, stinging constantly in my eyes,” Brown said.
“By the time fire crews showed up, we had him sitting next to the garage, we got him out back and sat him next to the garage,” Smith said.
They said the man wasn’t wearing very many clothes, so they grabbed some from their house to share.
“His mouth was just covered in black, inside and out; he was coughing,” Smith said.
“It’s just scary, man, but we got him out as soon as possible,” Brown said.
Dayton Fire District Chief Matt McClain said two people were hospitalized because of smoke inhalation.
“Had my crews search the other side of the double, and found one other occupant inside there, likely asleep, and didn’t know the other side of the house was on fire,” McClain said.
News Center 7’s Taylor Robertson watched as investigators looked for what started the fire.
“Officially, it’s undetermined right now, but everything is kind of pointing to it might have been a kitchen fire that started on the stove,” McClain said. “The house did have working smoke detectors. We always encourage everybody to have those, especially this time of year, climate change coming up, make sure you check your smoke detectors, check your batteries.”
We will continue to follow this story.
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