Woman Risks Her Life to Rescue Elderly Man From Blazing House Fire -- and Now She's Crediting God

A woman who bravely ran into a home that was engulfed in flames on Sunday and saved an elderly man's life now says that she believes "God put (her)" in the right place at the right time.

Shannon Marshall, 32, of Ashland, Ohio, was driving down the road around 3 a.m. while taking a break from her job at Good Shepherd, a nursing facility, when she noticed flames coming from a house, WJW-TV reported.

Marshall initially stopped her car and called 911, but then she noticed that the door to the house was open and wondered if everyone was out of the building.

"I went to the door and the main door was open. That’s when I heard him yelling ‘help!'" she said.

Rather than waiting for emergency crews, Marshall ran inside the home, found an elderly man stuck on a staircase and brought him outside to safety.

Marshall saved the man just in time, too. She said his skin was black and his hands were blistered from the fire.

"I think that God put me here," Marshall told WJW-TV. "Honestly, I think that God put me here to save that man."

Ashland's Assistant Chief Dan Raudebaugh heralded Marshall's actions in light of "a very dangerous situation." While it isn't recommended for untrained civilians to run into buildings that are engulfed in flames, the woman's decision to put someone else's life before her own is being admired.

"I was pretty freaked out," Marshall said in an interview with Ohio's The Marion Star. "I’ve never done anything like that in my life, absolutely not."

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

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Featured image via WJW-TV

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