"When I got right up to the house that's when I decided to stop," he said.

He pulled his rig up about 500 yards past the driveway, set his brakes and turned off the ignition.

He could see very little at the end of the driveway, it was pitch black, and he walked up its slope not knowing what he'd encounter.

"It was very dark, there were no lights out there anywhere," he said.

Seeing blown-out windows in the house cued him into knowing what his instinct was already telling him, that "this is an emergency and I have to get these people awake."

Yadlosky banged hard on the house's front door at least three times before a woman's face appeared on the other side of its window.

"Ma'am your house is on fire," he said.

She told him to leave, but Yadlosky insisted. She relented and went to the back of the house to see for herself if what the stranger told her was true.

She returned and let Yadlosky in telling him that she was a caretaker for a disabled woman who lived there and she'd need his help to get her out of the house.

"The whole back of the building is on fire at this point," Yadlosky said.