Passer-by Braves Fire, Rescues Man

A man who awoke and found his house burning around him says a stranger braved the flames to rescue him Christmas morning and even gave him a coat to wear on the way to a hospital.

“I told him how much I thought of him when I got out of there,” Fred Key, 42, said Friday in an interview from Biloxi Regional Medical Center, where he was in good condition after being treated for smoke inhalation and a cut.

“I’ve never seen him before. He was just passing by,” Key said of Hilbert Stepro, who spotted the blaze and pried open anti-burglar bars on Key’s home to rescue him.

A spokeswoman for the West Jackson County Volunteer Fire Department said Key apparently had fallen asleep before the fire began in a pan on the kitchen stove.

Key said that when he awoke, “I really was scared.”

He said he plans to get together with Stepro, 23, to thank him once he gets out of the hospital. The two live about 1 1/2 blocks apart but had never met, he said.

“I owe him,” Key said. “He even gave me some clothes. I didn’t have nothing but shorts and a T-shirt on when I got out of there.”