Passerby Pulled People from House Fire

Jennifer Clark knew something was wrong when she drove by a North Mill Street apartment house early Thursday morning. 

Clark, 33, describes herself as a "homebody who usually never leaves the house" but she went out Wednesday night to visit with her brother and sister-in-law who were visiting from Florida.

On her way home that night, she noticed a "glow" on a house in her neighborhood. 

"I was coming around 1:30 in the morning and I saw this glow on the outside of the house; when I pulled up, it was just starting," an emotional Clark told Patch later that day. "I just saw the leaves and it looked like these little flames all over the ground and up the stairs."  

"I just threw my car in park, got out of the car and was running around stomping everything out, my foot went through the wood, and I was yelling but nobody heard me; I was screaming like a banshee," she said. 

Then she ran into the house and was banging on doors and woke the residents in the four units -- two single mothers and their babies, a couple, and a single man -- and got them outside. 

"I cleared the house out, I saved those peoples' lives," said Clark. "The wood had already caught and I put it out. If a good wind had come, it was going to shoot up the house." 

There were no injuries in the fire.

Holliston Police Chief Michael Cassidy credits Clark for stopping to help.

"She didn’t just keep driving," he said. "She was very helpful to ensuring that the public safety personnel were alerted, and that the residents got out."