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Winterville man pulled out of burning home by perfect stranger

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Published  November 11, 2024 11:11pm EST
Athens-Clarke County
FOX 5 Atlanta

Kind stranger rescues man from burning home

A Winterville homeowner says he's lucky to be alive thanks to a total stranger who helped pull him to safety from his burning home.

The Brief

    • Homeowner David McConnell says he was saved from his burning house by a stranger back in October.
    • McConnell was napping and initially ignored the sounds of the fire, until the fire alarm went off; he found himself in thick smoke and struggling to escape.
    • Betts, who noticed the smoke as he was passing by, broke through the locked storm door, entered the house, and pulled McConnell to safety.
    • McConnell's family considers Betts a hero and thanked him with tickets to a football game.
    • The family is now focused on rebuilding their home with the help of a GoFundMe campaign.

WINTERVILLE, Ga. - A homeowner says he’s lucky to be alive after a total stranger helped pull him to safety out of his burning house. The flames ignited on Oct. 29, on Oakmont Circle in Winterville, just outside of Athens.

David McConnell was taking an afternoon nap when he noticed an odd sound coming from the kitchen.

"I heard some popping and snapping and crackling," said McConnell.

He didn’t think anything of it and went right back to sleep.

"I thought it would go away, but it didn’t." McConnell said.

Then, the fire alarm went off.

"That got me out of the bed."

McConnell, still groggy, opened his bedroom door.

"You could not see out my backdoor or my window," McConnell said. "That was pretty scary."

McConnell made his way through thick smoke. He opened the front door. But the storm door was locked

"So, I ripped off and then kicked it in," said good Samaritan, Dylan Betts.

Betts was driving home from work when he saw the smoke.

"The smoke was a thick wall of black smoke, couldn’t see through," Betts explained.

Betts stepped inside the burning house and yelled out.

"Mr. David, luckily, heard my voice, and he came right to me," Betts said.

He grabbed McConnell, a man he’d never met, and pulled out to safety. When asked why he risked his life for a stranger, Betts said, "Why not? That’s America."

When asked whether he thought he could have died, McConnell said, "Yeah, yeah. My youngest daughter calls him ‘our hero.’"

The McConnell family gave Betts tickets to this weekend’s Georgia/Tennessee game as a small token of their appreciation.

The family says their focus now is rebuilding their home. They set up a GoFundMe campaign to help with the costs.

The Source: This is an original report by FOX 5 Atlanta's Christopher King.