A good samaritan came to the rescue after he stumbled upon a porch engulfed in flames while in the Gosling Meadows neighborhood of Portsmouth on Thursday.

Ed Brown was working a few houses down when he noticed a fire spreading at a nearby residence. Brown owns Spots For Lots, which is a seal coating and crack repair business. He happened to be in the Gosling Meadows neighborhood when he saw the flames.

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Brown said he immediately went to his truck where he keeps a fire extinguisher. When he got to the house, part of the porch was already on fire and both the eaves and awning were catching fie as well.

Brown said he was able to get about 90% of the fire out. While he was doing that, some other neighbors came out and Brown had them knock on the apartment doors to make sure everyone was out.

He also knocked on the apartment that occupied the right side of the house and had those tenants exit through the back.

Brown says the Portsmouth Fire Department arrived quickly, although he said that in those circumstances even five minutes felt more like an hour. He added that the holiday decorations on the porch were burned, as well as some of the railing and part of the roof.

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