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The living room was fully engulfed in flames when postal worker Jim Pechulis and neighbor John Keegan rushed inside to rescue Stock.
“I noticed the flames. I noticed the mailman running down. We got him out,” said Keegan, who lives across the street.
Pechulis, of Plymouth, was on his mail route, visiting a home, when he noticed the blaze and rushed inside.
“I’m shaking more now than when I was helping him,” Pechulis said while speaking with reporters.
The men said Stock told them he was trying to use a space heater he had just purchased at a thrift store when the fire began.
Stock was not injured. The men took him to his car, where he sat while firefighters tackled the fire.
Fire crews arrived quickly, but the one-story home where Stock lived alone could not be saved. Plymouth Assistant Fire Chief Jason Ravert called the home “a total loss.”
Stock was eventually evaluated at the hospital, and then housed by the American Red Cross.
Pechulis and Stock didn’t think their efforts were too impressive.
“I didn’t do anything that anybody else wouldn’t do,” Pechulis said.
Asked what sparked his reaction, Keegan said, “When it comes to crisis, you’ll be surprised.”
bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2055
