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A mysterious stranger is being hailed as a hero after waking a sleeping Las Vegas family, helping them escape a predawn house fire and then disappearing before anyone could learn his name.
The family is now searching for the man they say pounded on their front door, screamed “Fire!” and even grabbed a garden hose to battle the flames before quietly leaving, hoping to thank the person they believe saved not only their lives, but their neighbors’ lives as well.
The fire broke out shortly before 5 a.m. on July 5 at the family’s home in the Las Vegas Valley.
Home surveillance video shared with Digital shows flames engulfing the backyard as the fire spread.
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Video shows the unidentified man who alerted a Las Vegas family to a house fire. (Danna Shabtai)
Speaking with Digital, homeowner Danna Shabtai said she had gone to bed after asking children across the street to stop setting off fireworks near her home on the night of July 4. Hours later, at 4:51 a.m., she woke to someone frantically ringing the doorbell and pounding on the front door.
“My dog started barking, so I woke up and I stumbled to the door,” Shabtai said. “I opened the door and the gentleman was yelling, ‘Fire! Fire!'”
“He pointed toward the back of the house, and I turned around and I could see the French doors to the backyard. I just saw orange — like a wall of orange.”
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The unidentified man is seen on surveillance video moments before alerting a Las Vegas family to a dangerous house fire. (Danna Shabtai)
After realizing the fire was far more serious than she initially thought, Shabtai said her sister grabbed the family’s garden hose and rushed outside to fight the flames while she scooped up her 14-month-old son and ran next door to wake her neighbors.
“I started banging on their windows and their door trying to make noise, like, ‘Wake up! Wake up!'” Shabtai said.
She said two women joined her in pounding on the neighbors’ door until everyone inside made it out safely.
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The family’s backyard sustained extensive fire damage after a blaze erupted early July 5. The homeowners say an unidentified stranger woke them moments before the flames spread. (Danna Shabtai)
Meanwhile, the stranger grabbed a hose from the neighboring home and tried to keep the flames from spreading.
“He went to those neighbors’ house and grabbed their hose from the front yard, and he was trying to put out their fire,” Shabtai said. “So not only did he wake us up, he was trying to put out the fire with my sister.”
Shabtai believes the man’s actions prevented an even greater tragedy.
“If he wasn’t driving by at that time, I don’t know. It would have been a lot worse before we would have even noticed or woken up that there was a fire,” she said.
The family has since taken to social media in hopes of identifying the mystery man so they can thank him in person.
“You’re an angel. You saved our lives, and I’m really thankful for everything that you did,” Shabtai previously told Fox 5 Las Vegas. “You didn’t have to stop. You could have driven by and said, probably someone already called it in. But no, you took the time, and you woke us up, and you’re a hero.”
Extensive fire damage is visible in the backyard of a Las Vegas Valley home after flames spread between neighboring properties. (Danna Shabtai)
Speaking directly to the mystery man, Shabtai thanked him for stopping when others may have driven by.
“You saved probably two households and a bunch of pets because it would have been way too far gone before we would have realized,” she said. “You saved our lives. You’re a hero.”
Shabtai said she believes the fire began after children across the street continued setting off fireworks despite being asked to stop.
She said she heard debris landing on a neighbor’s gazebo and believes she saw a glowing ember drift over a roof toward the neighboring property before everyone went to bed. She believes the ember may have smoldered for hours before igniting the fire, though officials have not determined an official cause.
In a Facebook post after the fire, Shabtai credited the unidentified passerby with saving multiple families and expressed frustration over what she believes caused the blaze.
“This is why you leave fireworks to the professionals,” she wrote. “This guy who just happened to drive by saved our lives and our neighbors’ lives. Next year I’ll be standing outside with my garden hose and hosing down any feral kids lighting up fireworks in my neighborhood.”
She later shared a video of the aftermath, writing that while her family was fortunate to remain in its home, others were not.
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“Aftermath of fire. Neighbors are displaced now because of fireworks. Luckily we don’t have to leave,” she wrote.
Digital reached out to the North Las Vegas Fire Department for additional information about the cause of the fire but did not immediately receive a response.
