A social studies teacher in Washington, Missouri, looked out his daughter’s window around 10 p.m. on Sept. 11 and saw flames shooting from his neighbor’s house. Clint Schneider didn’t call and wait. He ran across the street barefoot, broke a back door window with a rock, and walked across the broken glass to get inside. He knew an older woman with limited mobility lived in the first-floor apartment.
Through heavy smoke and flames, Schneider spotted her wave. He grabbed her in a bear hug and carried her out. Firefighters arrived minutes later to find the bottom floor engulfed. The assistant fire chief said the fire would have turned deadly within minutes, and called Schneider a genuine hero. Schneider’s own take? He doesn’t think of himself as one, just doing what anybody would have done for a neighbor.
An online fundraiser is now underway for the rescued woman and an upstairs tenant who wasn’t home at the time. If this story has you thinking about the older neighbors on your own street, that’s a good instinct. Check on them, make sure they have a working smoke alarm, and know they’ve got somebody nearby.
Would you run into a burning building barefoot for a neighbor? Tell us in the comments.
