A high school teacher saved his neighbor from a burning Missouri building after smashing her back door with a rock, then realizing he was barefoot and going over the glass anyway.
Clint Schneider, who teaches social studies at Washington High School in Washington, Missouri, looked out at about 10 p.m. on Sept. 11 and saw the house across the street on fire.
He knew the woman who lived in the first-floor apartment was older and did not get around well, so he went over.
There was no easy way in, so he picked up a rock and put it through the glass of a back door, and only then did he look down and notice his feet were bare.
He went in over the glass anyway and got her out.
By the time firefighters arrived, flames had taken the bottom floor of the building and the woman was already standing outside.
Assistant Fire Chief Mark Skornia is in no doubt about what the timing meant.
“In a few minutes, this would have been a deadly fire,” Skornia said.
Clint’s own version of the night is a good deal shorter.
“I don’t think of myself as a hero. Just doing what anybody would have done for their neighbor,” he said.
