Travis Anders, Rives-Tompkins Firefighter: "I don't consider myself a hero at all. I'm just glad everybody's alive."
A local firefighter saves his neighbor's lives. That Jackson County family's home is gone, but they're happy to be alive. When someone passing by the Tompkins Township home spotted flames, they called 911. That's when Travis Anders got paged and rushed to the rescue.
Travis Anders: "I live just a couple houses down the road, so came here straight to the scene. When I showed up, the flames were actually coming through the roof."
The volunteer firefighter says he busted down the door.
Travis Anders: "And I was yelling, "fire department!," to see if anybody was in there."
At first no one responded. He says, that's because everyone was asleep.
Travis Anders: "They were not aware that the fire had started, so I told them to get out, so then they actually refused and didn't want to."
Anders says they didn't believe him, and actually thought someone was trying to break in. It wasn't until he convinced the family to come outside and see the flames for themselves that all four people made it out safely.
Travis Anders: "It's just what we do, no, I don't consider myself a hero at all. I'm just glad everybody's alive and OK."
Although he says he's no hero, what Anders did was heroic and may have prevented tragedy. The Red Cross is helping the family, and for now they're staying with relatives. Firefighters say the cause of that fire is not known at this time.
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