MARGARET River resident Steve Wyld has humbly accepted thanks after saving a local family from a house fire last month.
Steve was getting ready to go fishing around 7.30am about three weeks ago when he noticed smoke coming from a house on Tea Tree Link, a few streets away from his home.
“It was getting bigger and blacker,” he said. “I jumped on my push bike and went up there.”
He passed an elderly couple out the front – who were assumedly phoning the fire brigade – knocked on a door and jumped the fence to the back porch, where the smoke was coming from.
He unhooked the water hose from a caravan and used it to put out the fire.
“It took 10 minutes,” Steve said. “I put it out and left.”
Firefighters arrived at the scene soon after.
Karen Dittmar, who was asleep inside the house with her children when the fire started, said, “It was just amazing.
“He magically appeared.”
She said firefighters later told her it would have been “another five minutes and the house would have gone up in flames.”
Karen’s children had been sleeping in a room nearby and were at risk of being hurt as the window started to crack and let smoke into the house.
“Thanks so much Steve for saving my bacon and the kids,” she said.
She doesn’t know how the fire started but said it had lit “a bunch of stuff” that was outside ready to sell or giveaway.
Steve said he had been in a bit of shock during the incident but acted quickly, with credit to his time with the Wallcliffe Bushfire Brigade years ago.
Asked if he felt proud of his efforts, he said, “At the time I did.”
“It was a good start to the day.”
