Brendon Birt Iowa man rescues 4 siblings from Red Oak house fire after making wrong turn only to come across the blazing inferno. Children’s mom, Tender Lehman hails apiring rapper, Blase 96, a hero.
An Iowa man has been hailed a hero after saving four siblings from a house fire after taking a wrong turn while on the road only to stumble upon a raging home inferno.
Brendon Birt an aspiring rapper using the moniker, Blase 96 told KETV that he took a wrong turn while driving in Red Oak last Sunday and spotted the fire starting inside the family’s home.
‘I just felt like somebody was in there because it was so late at night, you know?’ Birt told the outlet. ‘I just knew that I had to act quick.’
Birt said he had a feeling in his gut that there were still people inside. So he began banging on the windows and yelling, ‘Fire!’
Ring doorbell video (see below) captured the unfolding moments.
Captured on Ring doorbell camera: Family of four in Red Oak, Iowa, runs for their lives as fire engulfs their home. It was late at night and they were roused from their sleep by a passersby who started pounding on the windows. The man, Brendon Birt, is being hailed a hero. pic.twitter.com/UPiA4EBRdw
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) October 31, 2022
‘They came out the door [and] I just felt like I just wanted to break down and cry,’
‘Every second that was going by was just getting worse,’ Birt told the outlet while waiting for anyone inside to come out of the blaze.
Soon after, three siblings — ages 8, 14 and 17 — ran out the front door of the house as flames swirled on the front porch.
Their 22-year-old brother ran through the front door moments later as the fire engulfed the porch more and more, footage showed.
‘They came out the door [and] I just felt like I just wanted to break down and cry,’ Birt said.
The siblings said the pounding and screaming woke them as the smoke alarms failed to go off.
The oldest sibling, Bryce Harrison said that he woke up to ‘an oven of heat and flames on the front wall.’
‘Everything was just black in the living room,’ his younger brother Christopher Lehman told KETV.
Cause of house fire under investigation
The children’s parents were out of town when they got the call that their home had caught fire with their children inside.
Their mother, Tender Lehman, said she was incredibly grateful to Birt.
‘My kids wouldn’t have made it, man. They’re safe and they’re safe because of him,’ she said. ‘I mean, lives were saved here.’
Five of the family’s dogs died in the fire, while two survived.
The family’s home was completely destroyed by the blaze, but Tender Lehman said she was just thankful her kids made it out uninjured.
The Stanton Fire and Rescue Department in a Facebook release said that it took them five hours to get the blaze under control.
According to his Facebook page, Brendon is a native of Red Oak, Iowa, and attended the University of Iowa.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation with the house described as a total loss.
