RING THE ALARM
Dramatic Ring doorbell footage captures moment stranger saves family’s life by warning them their house is on fire
DRAMATIC Ring doorbell footage captured the incredible moment a stranger saved the lives of a family of 11 by warning them their house was on fire.
Haily 'Moss' Strong, 23, heroically raised the alarm in the early hours of July 5 after she spotted the blaze from over a mile away.
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She had been driving home from a pal's Fourth of July party in Fairfield at around 1am when she noticed "black smoke above the trees".
The garage of Brittany Downing, 31, and Josh Ellis' home in Ohio, which they share with their nine children, was engulfed by flames.
The couple were watching TV as the inferno erupted while their kids slept, while Haily began driving frantically towards the fire.
She told : "I honestly thought it was just a rogue firework or something at first, but I knew I wouldn't sleep that night if I didn't at least drive over and see what was going on."
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The 23-year-old then steered towards the blaze with her roommate in tow, where she realized the ferocity of the flames.
Footage from the family's Ring doorbell shows the moment Haily desperately tried to wake the residents to alert them to the danger.
While banging on the front door she yells: "'You guys' garage is on fire!"
Haily watched in horror as the flames began to breach the house and spent nearly two minutes trying to wake the homeowners.
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The 23-year-old said it only felt like "seconds" but began struggling to breathe from the smoke and could feel the "heat on her face and arm."
She continued: "At the time, I was mostly just praying that the garage would stop exploding - there was multiple small explosions going off - and praying that I could get the family to wake up."
The panic-stricken passerby continued to try and warn the residents until bemused dad Josh answered the door.
She gingerly tells him: "I'm so sorry, your garage is on fire!"
Josh then ran to see the blaze before shouting: "Oh s**t!"
Despite the parents' bedroom being in the closest range to the garage, the fire alarms did not alert them to the fire.
'AN ANGEL'
The dad said he and his fiancé Brittany went into "panic mode" after smelling something unusual as someone hammered on their door.
He explained: "My fiancé was looking at me and said, 'What's that smell?' and that's when the door knocked. It was simultaneously."
The extraordinary Ring clip then shows the family scrambling to escape the burning home after waking their nine children.
Josh continued: "She stood there in the face of the fire and didn't move.
"She saved our lives because we didn't smell it until that moment, but the house was already ablaze.
"That’s an angel. She saved our family, no exaggeration about that. She stayed and she saved our family. I mean, the house was ablaze."
She saved our family, no exaggeration about that. She stayed and she saved our family. I mean, the house was ablaze.
Josh Ellis
It is unclear what started the fire and Haily said that it is still being investigated.
Mum Brittany also heaped praise on the heroic passerby, adding: "All of the other outcomes that could have happened if she wouldn't have stopped and knocked on the door.
"I don't know if me and him would be here today for them kids."
Ring doorbells have helped capture an array of remarkable moments on film.
We previously told how a hero jogger used the device to enter a stranger's home and rescue their pets from an inferno.
Paul Murphy saved two pooches, a rabbit and a cat from the blaze as the helpless homeowners watched it unfold on their mobile phone.
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We also reported how the electronic doorbell captured a crazed stranger threatening to "rape and kill" a woman as she hid in her home.
The doorbell cam also recorded the chilling last words of missing mom Chrissy Powell before she disappeared.
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