Aaron Jamison said it was “human instinct” when he and Richard Burke entered an apartment filled with flames and smoke to find a woman in her 90s trapped inside. 

The fire first broke out just before noon Wednesday at the Club View apartments in Nashport. 

Neighbor Pam Kelly was first to call 911 when she noticed the smoke from inside her own apartment. 

Kelly began searching for the smoke she smelled from inside her apartment. 

She then began knocking on doors with Brittany Imlay to notify other neighbors of the fire. 

Sensing the urgency of the situation, Burke, a maintenance worker at the apartment complex, keyed into the apartment in an attempt to rescue the elderly resident, but the smoke was too thick to advance.

“I kept telling him to get out, get out, we need to go, and he said he was not leaving her there,” said Jamison. 

So the two went outside and busted out a window to help clear the smoke. 

“We hollered for her and she responded, so we knew at that point that she was still alive and we had to get her out of there, so we all went back in front,” said Jamison. 

Once inside, Jamison saw the woman standing in a back bedroom trying to escape. 

“As soon as I saw her, I grabbed her and carried her out of the apartment,” said Jamison. 

Other neighbors who saw the woman said her teeth were black and she had plastic melted to her chest from her oxygen tube by the time she made it outside. 

“She had been in there a long time, just the way she looked when I brought her out, you know, but the important thing is we got her out of there,” said Jamison. 

When emergency responders arrived on scene, the woman was taken to the hospital. 

“Hopefully she makes a good recovery thanks to the heroics of some of the neighbors,” said Captain John Hodges of the Falls Township Fire Department. 

For Jamison, who said he didn’t know the woman he rescued before going inside, the fire brought back memories of his own traumatic experience when nearly his entire body was burnt while pouring gasoline on a small brush fire. 

“At first I was nervous, it kept flashing back in my head,” said Jamison. 

But he knew he had to take action. 

“It’s just one of them things, you just gotta, gotta help each other out,” said Jamison. 

Hodges said he appreciates what Burke and Jamison did, calling it an honorable act. 

The cause of the fire is not being announced until state fire marshals complete an investigation. 

In addition to Falls Township, Dresden, Licking Township and Frazeysburg all responded to the scene. 

A total of four fire trucks, one ladder truck and one squad were dispatched. 

While most neighbors were allowed to return to their homes, at least two bottom floor units may cause for those residents to be displaced due to smoke damage. 

The American Red Cross has been asked to assist. The property manager was also at the complex assisting.