It was -17 degrees on Tuesday around 4:30am when a fire broke out at a home in Aurora.

Julie Simek had been delivering newspapers when she noticed flames. She’s a firefighter and EMT for Central Lakes Township. So she immediately called 911.

Another firefighter who works for Aurora also stopped at the home, and started pounding on the windows.

“I told him there’s got to be someone in there, there’s three cars here. Then we saw two ladies at the front door. They looked really confused, like they had just gotten up,” Simek told us.

They helped the women down off the deck. Then Simek assisted the family dog down. And then a man came out as well. “There was so much nasty black smoke,” she recalled.

“We get a lot of training for this. But I’ve never been to one like this. Because if it had been another five or ten minutes, I’m not sure what the results would have been. They didn’t leave with anything, just the clothes on their backs. They didn’t have shoes or jackets or anything. But it could have been a lot worse,” Simek shared.

She encourages others to consider joining their volunteer fire departments.

The garage and two vehicles were also destroyed by the fire.