SHERIDAN (WNE) — Joe Kosma and his wife Kori Malles were out on a drive Saturday when they witnessed a fire barreling out of 519 N. Gould St. Amid the smoke and flames, a gentleman on the front porch turned around and walked right back into the burning home, Kosma said.

Kosma and Malles parked their car nearby, and Kosma rushed into the home.

“It seemed like he was older, he was in shock, he just didn’t believe it,” Kosma said. “Within seconds the porch was fully engulfed … I ran in the house and I found him in the living room standing there looking at the flames like he was in total shock. It was like in the movies, the flames coming in from the outer wall in front of the house, in the living room, rolling up on the ceiling, and I’m like, ‘We’ve got to go now.’”

Kosma said the room was completely black with smoke, impairing his vision while he attempted to drag the man out of the burning house.

“I had to do everything I could and all I thought was, ‘I’m going to die with this guy because I can’t leave him,’” Kosma said.

As he neared the back door with the man, a few other bystanders joined to help pull the man through the back door and some clutter on the back porch. Soon after, both Kosma and the man in the house were treated at Sheridan Memorial Hospital for smoke inhalation.

The man suffered non-life threatening injuries, according to a Sheridan Fire/Rescue release.