A man is being praised after his wrong turn resulted in four people being rescued from extreme danger in Red Oak, Iowa.
A house fire was being recorded on the family’s Ring doorbell camera when Brendon Birt drove past and saw what was happening, ABC 6 reported on Friday.
Birt exited his vehicle and began pounding on the windows in an effort to alert those inside which included three children and their 22-year-old brother.
For some reason, the home’s smoke alarms did not go off. Video footage showed the flames crawling across the porch area as Birt approached the house.
“Hey! There’s a fire! You gotta get out!” he shouted to those inside.
“Like every second that was going by it was just getting worse,” Birt recalled after the incident. He said he took a wrong turn down the street when he noticed the danger.
“I just felt like somebody was in there because it was so late at night, you know. I just knew I had to act quick,” he added.
His cries eventually woke those inside and the clip showed the three younger children escape through the front door while the eldest sibling got out moments later.
The parents were out of town when the incident occurred, but the mother later said the man who rescued her children is now part of their family.
Authorities are still investigating what initially caused the blaze, according to ABC 7.
“Pulling up the Ring video footage and watching it, I was in shock. It was horrible but knowing they were safe, I mean, we’re sitting here and there’s six of us in a camper and we still feel blessed,” the mother told News Nation.
Birt also expressed his feelings about the positive outcome, saying, “The fact that they’re safe and they’re my family now, it’s like a good feeling.”