Affton Man Helps Save Burning House and Residents in Maplewood

Thanks to the quick action of two buddies relaxing on a back porch, around 11:30 p.m. Monday, a couple in a Maplewood house in the 7200 block of Zephyr Place escaped their flaming home and the fire was brought under control in time to limit the damage. Only an addition on the back was burned.

Johnny Mallott, from Affton, was visiting his friend Nick Holmes when they noticed a little flame coming from the backyard next door, and thought it was a barbeque.

“Ten minutes later it was huge,” Holmes said. “I said something ain’t right. So we ran over to the driveway. The back of the house was on fire. I called 911, he knocked on the door. I ran and got my hose, because they didn’t have one.”

Holmes said the heat drove him back and burned his face. “My face was actually burnt,” he said. “I knew I had to do something, I couldn’t give up.”

Mallott was on vacation because he had hurt his foot and was on crutches.

He said he trotted up the front steps on his crutches, and saw one of the owners asleep. “I said, ‘Hey, hey, your house is on fire!’”

Firefighters from Maplewood and Richmond Heights arrived and put out the fire soon after Mallott called 911.

The owner of the house said the cause of the fire was embers from a barbecue in a trash can.