Merriell Moyer

merriellmoyer@ldnews.com

Four Lebanon County residents braved smoke and fire to save two elderly people and a dog whose South Lebanon home caught on fire Friday evening.

Hunter Umbenhauer, 16, and his brother Tyler Zimmerman, 23, both of Myerstown, and Samantha Ratcliffe, 23, Lebanon, and Natalie Warner, 15, Newmanstown, were on their way home from Sheetz at around 10:36 p.m. when they passed the house at 302 Iona Road.

“We saw a bright light coming from a window, and then we saw smoke pouring from the house,” Zimmerman said.

“I said, ‘I think we need to pull over,’ and Hunter said, ‘Oh my god, the house is on fire, pull over now!’” Ratcliffe said.

Umbenhauer, an Elco High School student and volunteer firefighter with Kutztown Fire Company, and Zimmerman leapt into action and ran to the back of the house to see if they could alert the people inside. Ratcliffe and Warner called 9-1-1 and checked the front of the house, which they later learned was a two-unit dwelling.

“We saw an older gentleman in one of the rooms, and we told him to come out of the house,” Zimmerman said. “We asked him if there was anyone else inside, and he said there was an elderly lady who lives in the front of the house.”

However, Ratcliffe and Warner weren’t able to get the lady’s attention.

“Hunter kicked the door down and pulled the elderly lady and her dog out of the house,” Zimmerman said. “She said she was not aware the house was on fire.”

“When I kicked the door open it bounced back because there was a pile of stuff in front of it,” Umbenhauer said. “The lady acted like she didn’t know what was going on.”

With the woman and her dog safely out of the house, Umbenhauer and Zimmerman went to the back of the house to check on the elderly man.

“We found that the older gentleman had walked back into the house,” Zimmerman said.

The man first went back inside to look for the woman, but he then made several return trips into the house for various items that were important to him, according to Zimmerman.

“I told him he needed to stay out of the house, so he came back outside,” Zimmerman said. “By that time the fire had gotten worse, and windows were starting to burst from the intense heat.”

The man, remembering that he needed some medication, ran back into a house that was filled with smoke and flame.

“I ran back in for him that last time, and I couldn’t see anything,” Zimmerman said. “I reached out and grabbed, and happened to get ahold of his arm and then I pulled him outside.”

After getting the man out, Zimmerman collapsed to the ground in a fit of coughing after inhaling too much smoke in his efforts to keep the man out of the house. After emergency crews arrived, he was rushed to WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital where he was treated for smoke inhalation.

Meanwhile, Umbenhauer was attempting to move the woman’s car, which was parked perilously close to the burning building. He was worried that the car’s fuel was going to ignite due to the intense heat coming off of the burning house.

“We ran back to get the keys, and when we opened the door smoke poured out and I told Natalie that we weren’t going back in there,” he said.

Umbenhauer put the unlocked car in neutral and attempted to push it, but it wouldn’t budge, he said. Then the situation worsened.

“While we were standing there trying to move the car the house started hissing like it was going to explode, so we got away from it,” he said.

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The older man’s son, who owns the house, arrived and attempted to help Umbenhauer move the car. Eventually, the owner used a skid loader from a nearby barn to push the car a safe distance away, Umbenhauer said.

After about 10 to 15 minutes fire crews from Schaefferstown, Hebron, Friendship, Avon and Prescott arrived on the scene and took over for Zimmerman and Umbenhauer. Zimmerman was rushed to the hospital while Umbenhauer aided emergency personnel until he was sent to WellSpan Good Samaritan Hospital for an evaluation to make sure he wasn’t injured.

Despite the smoke inhalation and risk of injury, Zimmerman, Umbenhauer, Ratcliffe and Warner all said they would do it all again if they had to.

“We were at the right place at the right time,” Zimmerman said. “If it wasn’t for us being there, I’m not sure that the elderly lady would have gotten out.”