ELKHART COUNTY, Ind. (WSBT) — A 79-year-old Indiana woman is alive, thanks to the quick thinking of her neighbor.
Neighbor rescues elderly woman minutes before explosion rocks her Indiana home (WSBT)
A fire sparked multiple explosions inside her home.
Around 9 p.m. Wednesday night her home caught fire, causing explosions that could be heard and felt miles away. The fire happened just north of Elkhart city limits.
After getting home from work, Dean Hapner received a ring doorbell notification of some sort of commotion close by. He soon realized his 79-year-old neighbor's house was on fire. He knew she could barely walk on her own.
Instantly, he ran to help.
She was down by the door, standing there with the walker she couldn’t get out, so I grabbed her by the shirt, picked her up and carried her out here to the road,” said Hapner.
When they got to the road, that’s when the first explosion of his neighbor's oxygen tanks occurred. Hapner instinctively dove on top of his neighbor to protect her.
He claims four girls who were coming down the road stopped and helped him carry the woman farther away from the burning home. That's when the second giant explosion went off, engulfing the home in flames.
Emergency crews were already on the way after his elderly neighbor activated her life alert device.
“So, as soon as she pushed it, it gets a hold of them so I was talking to them the whole time on that, so they knew that I had her in my hand,” said Hapner.
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