The fire happened Wednesday night on Grafton Avenue in Newark. Eyewitness video showed flames shooting out of the apartment.

Marine veteran Randall Mohler, 24, was hospitalized in serious condition Thursday after jumping from the third floor of his burning apartment building.

The fire happened Wednesday night on Grafton Avenue in Newark. Eyewitness video showed flames shooting out of the apartment.

Frantic neighbors called 911 for help.

"There's a fire. It just exploded on the second floor. You need to get fire trucks out here right away," said one caller. "We're going door to door. We're getting everybody out of the buildings right now."

"The whole window is blown out," said another caller. "There's someone laying outside and he's hurt."



"I heard a loud boom and then I looked out the window and saw an extremely large flame," said Catherine Freas, who lives in the neighboring building.

She ran outside and saw the injured man.

"He was extremely burned, extremely distraught. Very out-of-it, I'd say, in and out of shock. Everything was burned on his whole entire body. Very strong man. I just told him to stay with me, just please stay with me, they're coming. 'You hear them? They're coming, they're on their way. What's your name?' He told me his name was Randall. And I asked him — 'How are you doing this? You are amazing right now. How are you doing this?' He said, 'I was a Marine.'"

The United States Marine Corps confirms Mohler is a veteran.

Catherine says it was traumatic and upsetting to see him someone so badly hurt, but says his strength gave her strength.

"That's just an amazing person. That shows us the kind of strength that God really gives us. I couldn't walk away. It was more of a — this is where you're supposed to be right now, handle the situation. you can handle — he's going through something worse than you are."

Other neighbors describe Mohler as an extraordinarily caring young man.

Mildred Newman says last Monday, she burned a plastic dish on her stove, filling her apartment with smoke and the smell of plastic.

She says Mohler, who she'd never met, came to check on her and even brought her scented candles to make her apartment smell better.

She says he spent hours with her, making sure she was okay.

And now she's praying the stranger who showed her such kindness will be okay, too.

"I just think it's the most wonderful thing — a young man coming to someone and asking nothing. Not asking for anything," Newman said. "And I am just ever so sorry that he is hurt. Ever so sorry. It breaks my heart because a kind old soul like that just doesn't deserve it."

Investigators are still looking for the cause of the fire.

They say despite neighbors reporting what sounded like an explosion, they have found no evidence of that.

They say what neighbors heard might have been a flashover or backdraft from the fire.