Pocono News Section

Scranton man saves the day then leaves

Scranton man saves the day then leaves - Monday, June 9, 2008 at 4:29PM EST

Monday, Jun 9, 2008 @ 04:29pm EST

A good samaritan stepped in to rescue a family from their burning Scranton home and then quietly slipped away.

He saved 3 lives, but his identity remains a mystery.

As fire ripped through Kevin and Michelle O'Shea’s Scranton home, someone stopped to help.

Neighbor Kevin browning saw it happen.

"I saw somebody on the front porch yelling in to see if there was somebody in there, and the next thing I know I see Kevin and Michelle on the front porch and the smoke was, you couldn't even see them," says Browning.

Browning says the man backed up his tree cutting truck and the O'shea's jumped in.

But there was one more life to save, the O'shea's son.

Corey O'Brien, a Lackawanna County Commissioner, lives across the street.

He says, "As they were getting off the roof the woman said my son, my son, he's in the back bedroom he's in the back bedroom. So i ran around the house and their son was sitting on the back roof."

O'Brien says the man saved the son too with a neighbor's help.

But that's when the good samaritan bolted.

Now fire investigators and neighbors are looking for him.

“He's a hero, and we need to find him. Because he saved three lives today," says O’Brien.

Fire crews put out the flames, and late Monday afternoon, investigators say it started accidentally.

Now neighbors want to give the man who saved lives his due credit.

A pet dog was lost in the fire.

Red Cross volunteers and neighbors brought a constant supply of water to the fire fighters who dealt with temperatures in the 90's.