Neighbor rescues elderly woman from burning home

MILWAUKEE -- Robert Fields didn't think twice when a young woman pounded on his door screaming that her grandmother was trapped in a burning house next door.

\"I just went into action and tried to go into the home the first time, but the smoke was so hot, and the smoke was so heavy and the heat was so hot, that I couldn't get in the first time\" Fields told CBS 58 News.

The fire broke out shortly before midnight in a home near North 22nd and Hopkins in Milwaukee.

Before entering the burning home a second time, Fields wrapped a blanket around his body and a wet towel around his head.  He crawled blindly through the smoke-filled living room until he reached the 91-year-old woman who was coughing and huddled behind a couch.  Fields grabbed her arm and carried her outside where his fiance' comforted the woman until firefighters arrived and prevented the fire from spreading to his home. 

Fields said, \"I couldn't see anything in front of me, so as she kept yelling, I focused in on her voice and as I was able to rescue her.\"      

 

Fields' fiance' Yolanda Smith also tried to enter the home, but Fields told her it was too dangerous.

Smith said, \"I think we did a good deed for the day and I'm blessed that we saved a life.  And if we could do it again, we would.\" 

 

No one was injured in the fire that investigators believe was caused by a space heater.