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Neighbor Helps Save Several People From E. Baltimore House Explosion

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- City fire investigators are looking into the cause of an explosion fire in Baltimore Highlands.

On Monday night, neighbors are hailed as heroes for saving the people inside.

Amy Yensi spoke to a man who put his own life on the line to save people inside. There's plenty of debris back there. That's why the sidewalk is closed off.

Thankfully everyone made it out okay, in large part because of that man who risked his own life to save people he didn't even know.

"Thank God for people like you. My husband says you pushed him out of the way so you could go in there. Can I give you a hug? I think you're so brave."

Neighbors say Allen Randolph is the reason they're alive. He was burned and injured while saving complete strangers.

"That's when I got the children out and the grandmother out. And then, when I came down after putting a blanket on the grandmother, they said there's a lady upstairs."

Putting his life on the line, Randolph went into another burning house, leading a group of bystanders who came to the rescue after an explosion sparked a house fire Sunday in the Baltimore Highlands, just before 7 a.m.

"Third story wall came down and smashed right in front of me and her. It didn't hit her head, but it actually went down my leg, trapped my foot on a piece of sheetrock that had a nail sticking up."

The good Samaritan helped save seven people trapped in the flames as the walls came crashing down, rescuing four children, and Michelle Rose's disabled and elderly mother.

"My mother had a heart attack last night because of this."

Three homes on the 3600 Block of Roberts Place have been condemned by the city and reduced to rubble.

"Building's collapsed, reported two kids inside," says a first responder call.

The explosion was enough to bring the homes to their knees and buckle the sidewalk. Randolph says he would do it all again if he had to.

"We probably would have died. Thank god for good people that we have in this world," says Rose.

Randolph has been a hero before. He tells WJZ he once saved someone after a car crash. That person was also a stranger.

Back to you. Amy, thank you. Neighbors tell WJ there was a strong odor of gas before the explosion. That's part of the ongoing investigation.

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