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Willie Powell, 44, was driving home with his wife when he spotted smoke billowing from the second floor of the house on the 4000 block of Volta Avenue in Brentwood at about 2:30 p.m.
"I immediately stopped and jumped out of the car in the middle of the street," he said.
His wife yelled to him to stop, but Powell ran and knocked on the door. A 14-year-old boy answered and said he didn't know the house was on fire. He told Powell that his father was sleeping upstairs, and Powell told the children, including a 4-year-old girl and two 13-year-old girls, to flee from the house.
Two of the children were residents of the home and the other two were neighbors, according to a news release from the Prince George's County Fire Department. Four dogs were also rescued from the home.
Powell said he then ran upstairs and felt the door to the bedroom, which was warm. Powell, a former nurse's assistant of 25 years, said he was trained to react in emergency situations and knew to feel the door for heat and kneel on the ground when he opened it.
"A big ball of black smoke came out, and I could see the [man's] arm close to the door," Powell said. "I grabbed his arm and pulled him to the hallway. And I said, ‘Man, did you feel that heat? Your house is on fire.'"
The man raced downstairs to the kitchen for water to put out the blaze, which was started by an electrical malfunction in a window air conditioner according to the release, but Powell told him to leave the house.
"I just thank the good Lord for putting me there at the right time," Powell said.
Powell moved a year ago to Brentwood from Georgia. He said he applied for jobs in the medical field, but was told he was over-qualified. He now works in a Circuit City warehouse.
The second-story fire caused $20,000 in damages, according to the release. Fire fighters from Brentwood were dispatched to battle the flames and the displaced family is staying with other family members. Firefighters could not find a working smoke alarm on the second floor of the home.
E-mail Elahe Izadi at eizadi@gazette.net.
