Neighbor helps mother and two children escape Girard house fire - 21 News Now, More Local News for Youngstown, Ohio -

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - A heroic rescue as a neighbor helps a mother and her two children escape the smoke and flames of an early morning house fire in Girard.

Rebecca Cook awoke around 5:00 a.m. Wednesday morning to find her house on fire and no way out. So she managed to climb through a window and make it on to the roof in back of the house.

That's when her neighbor, Craig Smith, heard blood curdling screams for help. He told his wife to call 911, and then he grabbed his ladder and went to the rescue.

Smith's mother Joan Smith tells 21 News that her son would never want to take credit for just doing the right thing. "There was fire and they were screaming so loud. He ran and got his ladder, and he put it up, and he got the little one down, and then the little girl, and then he had to help the mother down," Smith said.

Smith's wife provided a robe for the victim and clothing for her young children as firefighters battled the blaze and other neighbors offered their help. The young fire victim's husband was not home at the time, he had just left for work.

The victim's family says smoke detectors were the other saving grace. "The smoke alarms were all wired in together so that if one went off downstairs, the ones upstairs went off. And that's what fortunately woke them up to get them out of the house," said Stacy Morsillo a relative of the family.

As neighbors put caution tape around the fire scene, firefighters say a large air conditioning unit in the living room, that the family says would sometimes trip the breakers, is one possible cause of the fire that's being investigated.

The victim's family and others are just thankful everyone is safe.

"It's just scary to think that the worst could have happened," Joan Smith says.

The Cook Fire Fund has been set up to accept donations at Victory Christian Center Church in Coitsville for anyone who wants to help the young couple and their children rebuild from this devastating fire.