By Dafney Tales
The Philadelphia Daily News
HUNTINGTON PARK, Pa. — A mystery man possibly saved the lives of almost a dozen people in Hunting Park yesterday — including napping tots — by bursting into a burning home, alerting the people inside and carrying the children to safety.
The fire started about 2:30 p.m. in an upstairs bedroom of the unlicensed day-care center and quickly spread to other rooms. Downstairs, at least eight toddlers slept as their babysitter played on the computer and the sitter’s siblings watched TV, oblivious to the smoke and flames.
According to neighbors, a man spotted the flames shooting out the second-floor windows of the home — on Carlisle Street near St. Luke — and stormed inside, where he alerted the babysitter, who helped him scoop up the kids and carry them into a nearby store.
But as quickly as he appeared, one resident said, he vanished.
In the 10 minutes it took firefighters to extinguish the flames, most of the upstairs was damaged and the basement sustained significant water damage, said Rob Artwell, who lived in the home with his wife, Sherry, and their 11 kids.
Sherry Artwell operated a day-care center out of the house, neighbors said, but it wasn’t clear where she was when the fire started. The couple’s eldest daughter, Amanda, 20, was watching the kids at the time.
Authorities have not determined the cause of the fire.
The family had been renting the property for almost four years and had no renter’s insurance, said Rob Artwell, a manager at a local warehouse.
Artwell was on his way to Delaware when Amanda called him about news of the fire.
“I had to stop and pull over to collect myself. . . . I’m still kind of shocked,” he said while he kissed the cheek of his 2-year-old son, Logan, whom he held in his arms.
They stood just feet away from a pile of drenched and charred furniture that had been flung onto the sidewalk.
“I’m just happy that everyone is OK,” he said.
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