BILL LOGAN
ABCActionNews
Reprinted with Permission

TAMPA - By the time the sun was up this morning, George Driver had to leave. He'd seen enough damage to the place he had worked so hard to fix up along the Hillsborough River.


It was a complete loss.

"We couldn't see the front of the place," said Paul Kerr, who ran across the street to help his neighbor after hearing a loud noise, then seeing the smoke and flames. His initial efforts were to rouse him from a sound sleep at 3 am.

"We were just banging on anything we can," he said.

Thanks to Paul's efforts, George got out of the blazing, smoky scene alive. So, too did his precious pets.

"We grabbed him..." said rescuer Kerr -- standing a few feet from a pair of large birdcages -- one for a Cockatiel, the other containing two Macaws. "Then we grabbed the birds... and then we went back for the dog."

"It was just a wall of fire and smoke, he continued. "It was all we could do to get 'em out."

Firefighters had a difficult time time putting out the blaze. The sturdy old house -- rehabbed and retrofitted -- burned long and hot as crews stayed back at one point for fear of a roof collapse. Happily, though... in the dark and sooty haze of this Monday morning, the fabric of this family-oriented collection of cottages and bungalows didn't disintegrate,

"'Cuz by the time I was out there, half the neighborhood was," said Paul Kerr, who defelcted any notion of being a hero.


"If I wasn't there (pulling George to safety) someone would have done what I did."

That neighborly way will be put to the test... as George Driver plans to rebuild and even bigger better place on the same spot.