Concrete contractor John Reed was pouring a sidewalk outside the Trentwinds motel on Wednesday morning when he heard two young women yell "Fire!" - and moments later, Reed and his stepson pulled a disabled man from a motel room choked with black smoke where the bed was ablaze.

The man in his mid-50s was identified as Jonathan Pearson by Jerry Ellis, who has been staying in the room next door to the one where the fire was sparked.

Next, the contractors doused the fire with the water reservoir from their cement truck. The fire was out by the time firefighters arrived moments later.

But the initial scene was dramatic, said Reed, owner of J & S Concrete in Peterborough.

"The bed was on fire - the flames were four feet high," he said in an interview later in the day on Wednesday.

He said he and stepson Darrel Almond, who was working with him on the scene, helped the man get out of the motel room.

"He could barely move," Reed said. "The smoke was as black as I've ever seen - it was terrible."

Pearson was taken to Peterborough Regional Health Centre by ambulance, said Platoon Chief Stephen Reid of the city fire department.

As far as Ellis knew, by Wednesday night Pearson had been released from hospital and was staying with family in Burleigh Falls.

Ellis said he "could smell something noxious" around 10 a.m. Wednesday - and when he went to investigate, he found Pearson's door ajar and the room filled with black smoke.

Ellis went into the room and "grabbed" Pearson but couldn't drag him to safety.

The two of them were coughing and choking, he said, and there was so much black smoke Ellis could hardly see.

"My tongue and lips and teeth were black" after, he said.

Ellis said the two contractors and one other man came to help moments later and that's how Pearson got out safe.

"They were good to come to the rescue as well - not just me."

When he heard the two women yell "Fire!", Reed said he ran to find the man's door open and black smoke billowing out. He went inside to find him lying semi-conscious and unable to escape.

After saving Pearson from the fire, he and Almond used the water reservoir and hose from their concrete truck to kill the flames, he said.

Pearson wasn't entirely conscious as he was being taken away in the ambulance and didn't speak - and it wasn't clear what had sparked the fire, he said.

When Pearson was safe, Ellis said firefighters were called; Ellis sat with Pearson while they waited for the ambulance.

Firefighters were on the scene within minutes, sometime around 10 a.m., Reid said, and they arrived to find a smouldering mattress.

Reed and Almond had been on the job a few days and they'd seen Pearson before: he was staying in the motel and had severe mobility issues.

Reed said he was especially concerned because the neighbouring rooms were occupied and the man might not have escaped if he'd been left just another few minutes.

But he wouldn't call himself a hero: "We were just in the right place at the right time."

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joelle.kovach

@peterboroughdaily.com