A man suffering a restless night sleep after too much Mountain Dew may have saved his neighbor’s life Jan. 24.
‘He’d gone to bed but he was still be-bopping around up there,? said Darcy Karras, who was sleeping downstairs with a full-leg cast.
Suddenly, she said, her husband Pete Karras started yelling for her to call 911.
Pete, she learned later, thought the flickering he noticed on the ceiling was a tow truck, or someone turning around in their driveway in the 4300 block of Cornith.
But when he looked out the window, Pete saw smoke and flames billowing from his neighbor’s home.
‘He ran down the stairs and pulled on his boots and he was out the door,? Darcy said. ‘I’m screaming at him ‘Don’t go in, don’t go in.?
Once across the street, Pete started pounding and pounding. But his neighbor, Phil Rico, is hard of hearing.
The pounding went unnoticed, darci said, until her husband got desperate and started breaking down the door.
His neighbor finally woke and came outside, but it wasn’t long before he was on his way back for his two cats.
‘Pete said ‘No, you’re not going back in, you can’t go in.?
At that point, she said, he 911 call was answered by Oakland County SDheriff’s Deputies from the Orion Substation, the first of several emergency responders to arrive on the scene.
Rico was treated for injuries and released — but later learned one of his beloved cats didn’t make it out alive.
Darcy, meanwhile, said her husband is a hero.
I’m very proud of him,? she said. ‘But I was scared to death.?