VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — As smoke began to billow out of a Virginia Beach home on Saturday, Shane Symons could hear the sounds of a woman calling for help.
She was trapped. And her house was burning down.
Symons was heading to his mom's house near West Plantation Road when he heard the cries.
"I knew that I was running out of time, her calls were less frequent, more labored," Symons said. "I think we actually had seconds."
He pulled up to his mom's house he could see black smoke coming from a neighbor's home.
"I knew that was more than a fireplace or somebody burning leaves it was black dark smoke," Symons said.
He rushed over to find flames coming out of the left side of a house and a man outside who told him that his mother was still inside.
"I hear her calls for help and I'm thinking she's in the garage," Symons said. "Both those doors are locked. I go to the side door I kick it in, break the glass kick it off the frame, it was a metal door, it was pretty tough."
Symons said when he finally made his way inside of the home, the smoke hit him.
"I've never seen something so dark as the smoke and the chemical taste of it and the burning of the throat," Symons said. "It was just unbearable."
After about 15 minutes of trying to locate the woman, Symons readjusted his plan of attack.
He said the house he grew up in was a similar lay out and had an idea of where the woman maybe.
Symons went outside, found a large rock, and threw it through a window.
He was eventually able to locate the disabled woman near the garage door.
"I crawled into the room into where she was, got to her, kind of held her head and she was not really all of that responsive and I knew were were losing time," Symons said. "I was like 'we got to go' so I grabbed her by both wrists and just pulled her as fast as I could to the door."
Neighbors helped Symons carry the woman away from the house, where first responders were eventually able to take over.
Symons said he had no idea who these people were but just wanted to help.
The Virginia Beach Fire Department said the woman was taken to the hospital where she is still recovering.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
