Racine County man helps rescue neighbor from burning home

RACINE COUNTY (CBS 58) -- A neighbor helped a woman escape a burning home in Racine County this weekend. 

The fire started at a home on Blackhawk Drive in Caledonia Saturday afternoon. 

Nicholas Patrenets, who lives behind the home, was in his kitchen when he saw the smoke. 

"We happened to glance up and we saw all we smoke and we assumed it was a grill or something cooking. I stood up and I was like 'No, no dude, the deck is on fire.'"

Patrenets said he ran over to his neighbor's. 

"Rushed out my back door here, on the phone with 911, rushed around my house ran over there started pounding on the garage door to make sure no one was there," he said.

He said a woman, he described as a caregiver, was there and answered the door. 

"She said that the one lady, she was bed ridden and only way we could get her out if we carried her out and all I could see when we ran into the house was smoke and fire in the kitchen across from us," he said. 

They were able to get her out, despite inhaling some smoke. 

"I ended up taking a little bit of smoke in breathing it as I was trying to carry her out, but thankfully I’m okay and she’s okay, too," said Patrenets. 

He said firefighters told him the situation could have been much worse if he didn't step in. 

"One of the fire investigators said if it wasn’t for me running in there at the time I did, this could have been a fatal fire instead of a regular house fire," he said. 

The woman was rushed to the hospital. 

Officials say there were no working fire alarms in the home. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.