NORWOOD, Ohio — Three Xavier employees saved two women and their dog from a house fire in Norwood.
Norwood Fire Chief Tom McCabe said a fire started shortly before 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at a home near the intersection of Hopkins Avenue and Webster Street.
“Upon arrival, we had a fully engulfed house with two victims who were outside of the building," McCabe said. "Both were transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries."
A family member of the two women living inside the home, Holly Caudill, said the Xavier employees got them from their porch to safety.
The women were taken to the hospital and have been admitted for observation. Caudill adds they are both OK, but she said they are devastated about the extensive damage the fire caused and everything they lost in the fire.
Caudill said they are extremely grateful for the three employees who stopped to help them — one of whom is groundskeeper Bob Fahey.
"It sounded like warfare honestly going off in there," Fahey said.
Fahey said he had just finished blowing leaves with his team, his uncle and cousin, when he heard "Help, help!"
"I see an older lady trying to come out the side door. And I see there's a pretty good fire going back there," Fahey said. "It was already throughout half of the back of the house and already up on top and it was just moving towards us."
Investigators said one of the two people in the home was on oxygen. The fire caused some of the tanks to explode inside the home, making matters worse.
"What scared me was when I was going down the stairs and the blast from the canisters on the porch kinda engulfed me a little bit and the older lady, but I had her tucked away and she was alright," he said. "I don't think she had too many burns."
McCade said the conditions were so bad "there's no way anyone could have survived had they been in the building."
Terrissa Sierra lives next door and saw the house on fire. She had to run across the street.
“I panicked, I was like, 'Oh my God, I didn’t even have time to put shoes on,' and I ran out and luckily those two ladies had already been out," Sierra said. “It’s a shock. It was just so unexpected, you know I was just going about my day and bam there was a big old fire and explosion."
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Police have not released the identity of the employees who stopped to help.
Caudill adds they are in need of women's clothing and shoes for her two family members. She said you can message her on Facebook or her sister Kara Alsip, if you have any items to donate.
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