Teen woke up to a cop banging on her door at 4:40 am —one word made her flee the house, saving 8 lives
Sometimes, a person might find themselves at the right place at the right time to save a person's life. An officer on a night shift found himself in such a situation as well. The man, Officer Sean Peck, was inside the police station early one morning when he saw smoke emanating from a house across the street. It was around five in the morning, so the family was sleeping and hadn't realized there was a fire. The officer rushed towards the house and banged on the door to get everyone out, per ABC Action News.
Peck was able to rescue eight people from inside the house at West Woodland Avenue. The officer noticed smoke and heard a resident of the area, Justin Ritorto, alerting the neighborhood about the fire. So the officer immediately rushed towards the burning house and banged on the door to wake the sleeping family. A teenager inside the house heard the officer's loud banging, which also woke her up from her sleep. Peck went inside the house and managed to save the family of eight, with five adults and three children. "I started waking up all of the people inside and it was a chaotic scene, as you can imagine, trying to wake people up at 4:00 a.m. and there was a massive fire going on."
The officer credited the neighbor, Ritorto, the volunteer firefighters and more for making the rescue possible. The rescue also meant a lot to the man for a special reason. He went on, "I would do this for any person that I didn't know, but knowing that it's a family I have that personal rapport with, it means the world to me." Penndel Police Chief Sean Perry also commended Peck's work in the rescue and how it changed things for the family. "If he didn't see it when he did, the house probably would have gone fully up and good chance nobody would have made it out," Perry commented.
Deputy Chief Sam Simon from the Penndel Fire Department told 6abc Philadelphia that because of the huge number of items inside the house, the fire was moving very quickly. "It adds to the fire load, narrow walkways in the dwelling make it really tough and they make it very hazardous for the firefighters. You can see from the outside of the house, the inside is twice as bad." The house was completely lost to the fire. The teen girl from the family also lost her pet bunny to the fire and was quite sad because of it. The fire department arrived at the scene just four minutes after the call, but it would have been too late if the family had waited for the firefighters, according to the outlet.
The fire had been caused by an unattended fire pit in the backyard, according to ABC Action News. The Red Cross was assisting the family, as they had lost their home and belongings. Nonetheless, they were grateful that all of them made it out alive. The officer was glad that he could help the family in such a way. "I did this job to help people and when I get to do stuff like this, it's very satisfying," Peck remarked. The 31-year-old was inspired to become a first responder during the 9/11 attacks. "I was always inspired to help people by those 9/11 first responders and then right out of high school, I joined the military. If I could just be 1% as good as those people I got to serve with and now I get to serve with, I'll be a very happy person."