A Good Samaritan’s quick actions helped two residents escape a burning home in Rockland Monday afternoon.
Paul Gilhus says he was riding his motorcycle with his brand-new GoPro strapped to the front while going to vote in Monday’s federal election when he noticed smoke coming from the corner of Edwards and Laurier streets.
After hearing screaming, he decided to step in.
“When I heard some screaming, that’s when I parked the bike. Do your duty to help as a citizen kind of thing,” he said in an interview.
In video shared with CTV News from his motorcycle camera, Gilhus is seen approaching a chaotic scene at the side of a burning home where a woman had jumped out of a second-floor window.
A man was seen hanging from the window with Gilhus holding his hands up to break his fall.
“Adrenaline was going. I remember running across the street and I felt like I was only five pounds,” he said.
Ontario Provincial Police tell CTV News that officers responded to the fire at around 12:30 p.m. OPP spokesperson Bill Dickson says the people who jumped from the upper floor were transported to hospital.
In an update Tuesday morning, the OPP said the cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Russell County OPP Crime Unit and the Office of the Fire Marshal.
“Two people were transported to hospital after they jumped from a second storey window,” the OPP said.
“The Clarence-Rockland Fire Department extinguished the blaze and ensured no one else was in the building.”
Gilhus says he purchased the GoPro for his safety while riding his motorcycle and had only used it one other time. He says left the scene quickly but feels shaken by it several hours after.
“I’m just a compassionate person. There was a need and I went to see if they could use a hand,” he said.
Gilhus thinks his instinct to step in come from others who have assisted him while in a time of need.
He recalled the services and help his family received from the Roger Neilson Children’s Hospice in Ottawa when three of their six children were diagnosed with rare genetic disorders and later passed away.
“Maybe that’s where the compassion comes from a little bit?” he said. “All throughout the lives of our handicapped kids, we got so much help from other people, like so much help. That makes the world go round, right?”
The community of Rockland is located within the City of Clarence-Rockland just east of Ottawa.