GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — More than a week after a devastating house fire, a Grand Rapids woman was given the opportunity to thank the good Samaritan she views as a hero.
It's a story you saw first on 13 ON YOUR SIDE and it helped make the reunion happen.
Renee McColgan's home on 11th Street in Grand Rapids caught fire on the afternoon of June 11.
As we reported at the time, McColgan had returned just prior, laying down for a nap on the sofa in her front room.
She never heard the smoke detectors trigger and thanked a mystery man for alerting her to the deadly situation playing out mere feet away: the fire engulfing the rear of the home.
Speaking to 13 ON YOUR SIDE Wednesday, Justin Stevens said chance brought him to McColgan’s neighborhood, when, attempting to circumvent a traffic jam, Stevens saw a crowd gathered on 11th Street.
He noticed the flames then erupting from the home across the street and a car parked in the driveway.
Stevens pounded on the door, he recalled, until a woman he’d later learn was McColgan answered at last.
“I just did it,” he related. “It just felt like the right thing to do. It needed to be done. And to me, it felt like much ado about nothing until I realized that she might not be here if I hadn't been there. It was just instinct.”
He's humble. Stevens never considered what he had done heroic, until the act later came up in conversation with a relative. Unbeknownst to Stevens, McColgan had been posting and scouring social media for insights into her rescuer’s identity.
“They said, they're looking for you. And I said, no, they're not--shut up,” he laughed. “She said, no, they're looking for you. They're trying to figure out who you are. They sent me the article and I was like, that's her. That's the lady.”
“I’m just so excited to be able to meet him and tell him thanks,” she said. “It doesn't feel like enough. And I'm the kind of person that wants to do something good for someone who did something good for me. And I realize that's not necessary. But I just, I have no words. No words.”
The act, McColgan said, had restored her faith in humanity and the kindness of strangers.
“You don't expect a lot from strangers these days,” she related. “It just was the human thing to do and the right thing to do and it means the world to me.”
Investigators, McColgan said, were still in the midst of looking into the cause of the fire at the time of publication Wednesday.
The home, which she rents, will be repaired, however, many of McColgan’s possessions were damaged or lost to the flames and ensuing firefight.
Friends and loved ones organized a GoFundMe on her behalf, which had yet to meet its goal at last check.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Watch 13 ON YOUR SIDE for free on Roku, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and on your phone.