Johnstown, PA, Letter Carrier Matthew Lamb smelled smoke as he delivered mail to a home recently, but he thought it must have been coming from a wood-burning stove or other heating source.
Moments later, as he continued his deliveries on a nearby street, he saw that the porch of the same house was in flames.
Lamb rushed back to the scene, where he knocked on the front door, helped a woman inside to safety and called 911.
He then learned that her grandson was asleep upstairs, so he began looking for another entrance as the fire spread.
Soon the grandson cried out for help as he climbed out a window, and Lamb caught him.
“I always try to help people out,” Lamb told The Tribune-Democrat newspaper. “Things can be replaced. I’m just glad they’re OK.”
The local NBC station later covered a ceremony where Lamb was honored and reunited with the people he saved.