“This would’ve been a totally different situation in a few minutes. In a few minutes, this would’ve been a deadly fire,” a Missouri fire official said
Credit: supportnow.org
NEED TO KNOW
- Missouri teacher Clint Schneider rescued his elderly neighbor from a burning home late Friday, Sept. 18
- Schneider smashed a window and entered barefoot into the smoke-filled house to get the woman to safety
- Fire officials praised Schneider as a “genuine bona fide hero” for his quick and selfless actions
A Missouri man is being praised after he raced into a burning home to save his elderly next door neighbor.
Clint Schneider, a Washington High School social studies teacher, was home when he saw flames coming from his neighbor’s home a little after 10 p.m. local time on Friday, Sept. 18, in Washington, Mo.
“Glanced out my daughter’s window and noticed that our neighbor’s house just had flames shooting out the window,” Schneider told KMOV4, adding that the older woman has limited mobility.
“I immediately thought, she’s going to need help, and took off as fast as I could to get to her house,” Schneider continued.
“This would’ve been a totally different situation in a few minutes. In a few minutes, this would’ve been a deadly fire,” Assistant Fire Chief Mark Skornia told the news station of Schneider’s quick thinking.
Schneider, who was barefoot at the time, used a rock to break a window and enter his neighbor’s home.
“I thought, ‘Man, this is stupid. Why did I not put on my shoes,’ right? So, I walked across the glass. It was okay. It wasn’t that bad,” Schneider told KMOV4.
He recalled the flames felt like an inferno.
“The living room was just glowing with fire. It was on the floor, on the ceiling, going up the walls,” he said of the scary rescue. “It was one of those things, to where you realize I don’t have a flashlight, I don’t know where the light switches are, you know, it was dark. But luckily, through the glow of the fire, I could see her hands wave at me.”
He found his neighbor by calling out to her since visibility was low in the smoke-filled house.
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“Was able to grab her arm, and she grabbed my arm, and we started walking out. But it wasn’t very fast, so we just gave her a big bear hug and carried her out of there,” Schneider said.
When firefighters arrived, the woman was already safe.
“I don’t think of myself as a hero. Just doing what anybody would have done for their neighbor,” Schneider said.
The woman’s name and age were not publicly released. A Support Now fundraiser was set up for her.
PEOPLE reached out to the Washington Fire Department for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.
“A true hometown hero. Thank you, Mr. Schneider for your lifesaving actions,” the fire department wrote in a Saturday, Sept. 19 Facebook post that included the school teacher’s interview with the news station.
“We have here a genuine bona fide hero,” Skornia told KMOV4.
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