Suzanne Wright, 56, saw something on her phone that she did not understand: several people in pajamas forcing open the door of her mother’s house. She was 8 kilometers away and for a moment thought they were burglars.
They were not. They were neighbors from Wigston, England, running toward the fire that had already engulfed the house where 87-year-old Phyllis Day was sleeping. She lives with Alzheimer’s and that night had taken out her hearing aids, unable to hear the smoke alarms.
Suzanne used the doorbell intercom and guided the neighbors to a key box. Pav Sarpal, 28, and Stephan Smart, 44, went inside and brought Phyllis out alive. She has cared for her mother alone since her husband Charlie died in 2018 — that night, eight strangers became the reason she is still alive.
