He and two others showed up in the nick time.
In a tense video caught on a police bodycam, good Samaritans are seen rescuing three people from a Connecticut house fire.
The rescue video, filmed earlier this week, shows a retired fire chief, an off-duty firefighter and an off-duty Hartford police lieutenant using ladders to pluck residents from the window and roof of a Bloomfield home as smoke billowed out of the residence.
Plainville firefighter James Lenois, who was off duty, jumped into action as soon as he arrived on the scene.
“I’ve been a firefighter for 15 years and you know what that smoke smells like and I pulled up on the house and there’s fire coming out the front of the house and people are screaming, ‘There’s people inside,’” Lenois told WFSB.
Hartford Fire Chief Billy Smith and an off-duty Hartford police lieutenant happened to be in the area as well, reports said. The group banded together to rescue the victims in what they believe would have been a fatal fire.
They pushed ladders up against the two-story home to save the residents.
“We grabbed the elderly lady from the second floor, ran around back to the back side of the house, grabbed the elderly gentleman out of the second floor,” Lenois told the station.
At least one other person was reportedly in the home at the time, but was able to get out on their own.
“It’s a good feeling to be able to help someone out and you never know when people need help, we were in the right place at the right time,” said Lenois.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, reports said.
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