Good Samaritans desperately try to save a couple trapped by window bars during a house fire

There are many ways to make your home more secure: you can install doorbell cameras, keep doors and windows locked, and even put security bars over your windows to really deter would-be thieves.

But in some emergencies, certain precautions can become liabilities, a Houston couple tragically found out Sunday.

Reports came in around 10:40 a.m. Sunday that a home in northeast Houston was on fire. The occupants, a man and a woman, were unable to escape the burning house and were trapped by the burglar bars on the house’s windows.

Nearby Good Samaritans who were visiting the neighborhood barber heard the man’s cry for help and went to investigate. Neither wanted to give their names, but they were both willing to talk about what happened next.

“Heard the guy yelling and went down to help him,” one of the men said loudly KTRK TV. “I saw him standing by the burglar bar.”

Within minutes the men had come up with a plan and the barber was driving his truck around. As the flames grew, the men attached chains from the truck to the safety bars and then used the truck to pull the bars out.

The man who had been standing by the window was immediately pulled out by the Good Samaritans. One of them tried to enter the house to save the woman but had to turn back.

“I tried to go in and get the woman,” he said, “but the smoke and flames were too hot.”

Corresponding NNB news todayIt took the Houston Fire Department just six minutes to get to the home, but in that time the heroic men had been able to save the man and attempt to save the woman.

HFD firefighters located and removed the woman, but she was in critical condition at the time.

“They had to do CPR at the time,” Houston Deputy Fire Chief Douglas Harrison said. “I think they got the pulses back, I’m told. But she is in critical condition.”

The couple were taken to hospital, where the man was treated for smoke inhalation and is expected to recover. However, the wife died in hospital.

If it weren’t for these good Samaritans, the husband could have died too.

“She [the two good Samaritans] definitely stepped up and solved the problem,” Harrison confirmed. “They didn’t just sit back and watch.”

For the nameless heroes, this was a morning they will not soon forget.

“I was devastated at first,” said one. “I cried. I did everything. I was like, ‘Man! On my birthday. Why on my birthday?’ But I’m fine now.”

“God just puts you in the right places at the right time,” said the other. “To be in people’s lives.”

The HFD arson team is currently investigating the cause of the fire.