Hometown Heroes: Richard and Lindsey Knight

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By Justin Burrows - email

WHITEMARSH ISLAND, GA (WTOC) - A fire at The Island Tree Apartments caught everyone off-guard.

"It looked like a wildfire," commented Kari Hennecke, who lived on the ground floor.

Twenty-eight tenants lost everything. But thanks to the bravery of their neighbors, they didn't lose their lives.

Stories swirled in the community like the smoke that still rose from the ashes, about the man and wife who saved the lives of many.

Richard and Lindsey Knight live in a neighboring building and were pulling in when they saw the glow of their neighbor's porch.

"The flames were on this side where it's burnt real bad and there was flames coming up on the outside of the porch it wasn't inside yet, so I took the red bull can and actually threw it through the window because we couldn't get on the porch at that time," remembers Richard Knight.

The Knight's went pounding, door to door, trying to awake their neighbors.

"Literally, the woman ran through my house, got me up, got my little sister up, and my little brother, who is 4, and got us out of the house," said Hennecke.

"I got my cast and I fell down the first flight of stairs, the second flight, Lindsey came and helped me," said Brenda Taylor, who lives in the apartment Knight threw the can at.

Everyone in the building escaped the fire that night, thanks to a husband and wife tandem of hometown heroes.

"If he didn't do that, I can't say that we would have been, we would have been still sleeping. I can't say that we would have got out. we would not have," said Taylor.

"Thank you, that's really nice of them. If they wouldn't have come, none of us would have been able to get out," said Hennecke, as she wiped the tears from her eyes.