WILLIAMSPORT -- A state trooper driving by on his way to work helped rescue some tenants from a fire Tuesday morning in Williamsport.
"Nobody is going to survive the longer they're in there, so the faster we can get them out, the faster they can get help."
Before making it to work for his 7 a.m. shift at the state police barracks at Montoursville, Trooper Adam Kirk ran into a burning apartment house on East Third Street in Williamsport after fire started after 6:30 a.m.
"I broke the door in. I broke the glass out and went into the house and woke the residents up," said Kirk.
Trooper Kirk says once he got one couple out from the first floor, he ran back inside to try to get a woman from the top floor.
"The ceiling started to collapse down on the hallway and I just couldn't make it to the bedroom that I needed to," he recalled.
When firefighters arrived, they were able to rescue the 22-year-old woman on the third floor. Officials say she had a weak pulse and was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital to be treated for burns.
People who live around here say it's sad to see all of the damage that was left behind after this fire. But what matter most is that their neighbors made it out.
"To see that it's been ravaged by fire, it's kind of sad. Luckily it has a good side to it that the people got out so that's the important thing there," said Williamsport resident Barbara Hinkal.
The husband and father says he wasn't scared running into the burning apartment; he says it's all part of being a public servant.
"Honestly I was thinking more, 'uh oh, there's somebody in the house and we need to find her and get her out of the house because that's not very good for anybody.'"
Three families are being helped by the Red Cross.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
