FORT MYERS SHORES, Fla. — A Fort Myers Shores couple was fast asleep inside their home when an SUV came crashing through their yard, catching their home on fire.
The accident happened on Monday morning around 5:30 a.m. on 5th Street.
The man behind the wheel, a 33-year-old from Lehigh Acres, somehow left the road, hit two trees and flipped before landing just inches away from the Keene’s home. As a result of the crash, the SUV caught fire.
All of this didn’t even stir the Keene’s inside.
Thankfully though, their next-door neighbor heard the commotion and came outside to find the crash.
“I’m usually a light sleeper,” said Dennis Keene, who was sleeping inside the home.
However, neither Dennis nor his wife, Brenda, woke up for the crash. It wasn’t until their neighbor, Renne, came pounding at the front door.
“She said, ‘Hurry up and get out here! The house is on fire,’” Dennis said.
Outside, Renne’s husband, Gary Sincerbox, was doing whatever he could to keep the burning vehicle at bay.
“I grabbed my hose. Ran, turned it on and just spraying the front,” Gary said.
With a hose in one hand and 911 on the line in the other, the fire grew quickly. This whole time no one even knew someone was still inside the SUV.
“I seen an arm kind of like at this angle,” Gary said.
“That’s the most God-awful thing you could hear is somebody to tell you that they’re burning up.
“I’m on fire. I’m hurting bad, help me. Get me out of here,” added Dennis.
The driver inside managed to crawl away from the roaring fire and to the back of the SUV.
“The two sheriff’s deputies, they finally got ahold of him and drug his a** over there,” Dennis said.
The driver was dragged to the driveway, covered in the burns, according to witnesses.
“He was burned bad, bad,” Gary said. “When they lifted his arm, his skin just kind of…”
The Florida Highway Patrol said the driver was taken to the hospital.
If you ask the Keene’s, they’ll tell you the only reason the driver and their house are still here is because of their watchful neighbors.
“My house would’ve been really on fire and he would’ve been dead,” Brenda said.
“I’m no hero. I did what I had to do,” replied Gary.
Now this neighborhood wants the county to be the hero by making 5th Street safer with speed bumps or even signs.
“Hopefully something will get done before somebody gets killed,” Dennis said.
“This isn’t the first time, but it’s the worst time,” added Brenda.
Hopefully it’s the last time. If it weren’t for being in the right place at the right time, the damage could’ve been much worse.
The corner of the Keene’s home is burnt and charred and the blinds inside are even melted from the heat.
State troopers charged the driver with careless driving.