A Las Vegas man rushed in to contain a raging fire in his neighbor’s backyard while the homeowner was sound asleep. Robert Bloch and his wife arrived home from the grocery store when he saw flames coming from the shed of his neighbor, Steve Mannarino, who he had never met before. But with some quick thinking, Bloch was able to help contain the fire before it potentially burned down other homes on the block.
Las Vegas man helps to contain a backyard fire before it spreads further
On July 9, Bloch quickly sprung into action to stop the fire while other people nearby chose to stand around and record the blaze with their phones.
He banged on his neighbor’s door, waking up both Mannarino and his wife, who were both napping at the time. He then coordinated with other neighbors to drench the fire with water from their hoses before the firefighters arrived on the scene.
“I banged on the door, jumped over the wall, got the water [from a hose] going, then jumped over this wall, got the water going again, then yelled that this neighbor had water shooting,” Bloch said to KSNV, pointing to a fence eight concrete stones high. “So we had three different waters going.”
Meanwhile, Mannarino tried to put out the flames too, though it seemed like a lost cause. “I ran in the backyard with a fire extinguisher,” the homeowner recalled, “but the flames were 15 feet up in the air.”
Fortunately, the makeshift team of neighbors was able to keep the flames at bay before firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire. While all of the items in the shed were burned, their efforts prevented further damage to the property.
However, Bloch was frustrated with the lack of action from onlookers. He said, “To be able to, like, just jump over the fence and start taking, you know, charge, when everyone else is standing around with their phones and not doing anything. I couldn’t believe it.”
“If you see a fire or you see a neighbor in distress, you know what, do something,” he continued. “Don’t just stand there with your phone. Jump over the fence, put out the fire. Bang on the door. Bang on the door, wake people up, ’cause they wouldn’t know, right?”
While Bloch and Mannarino had never met before the fire, they say a new connection has formed between them. Mannarino says the experience has given him a renewed sense of community.
