An 85-year-old man and a passerby noticed a fire in a New Jersey house and worked together to wake the sleeping family inside.

CNN
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An 85-year-old man and a passerby in a New Jersey neighborhood are being hailed for their quick action after spotting smoke coming from a home and alerting the sleeping family inside of the danger.

Santo Livio, a longtime early riser, was checking his front yard around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday when he noticed puffs of smoke coming from a nearby garage, South Brunswick Township Police Department said in a statement.

At first, he wasn’t sure if it was smoke or fog, so he asked a woman on the street who was walking.

“I yelled at him, ‘Does that look like fire to you on that side?’ And he said, ‘Yes,'” Livio told CNN affiliate WCBS.

The couple ran into the house and started banging on the door and windows to get the attention of the family inside.

The family was inside and did not know their house was on fire, police said. Then they heard their front door and bedroom windows being smashed.

As the family began to evacuate, Livio called the police.

Fifty firefighters from the city’s three fire departments responded and extinguished the fire in about 20 minutes, police said. The woman who helped alert the family was thrown out during the commotion.

Although it appears the fire started in the garage, the Fire Safety Bureau will investigate where and how the fire started, the police statement said.

“I thank Mr. Livio, along with the unidentified woman, and their quick thinking and heroic actions, along with saving the family,” South Brunswick Police Chief Raymond J. Hayducka said in the statement.

Livio told WCBS that he was a good neighbor to the family, a couple with four children, who stopped by Livio’s house after thanking him.

“I was a neighbor who helped, and I’m sure someone would do the same for me,” Livio told WCBS. “At least, I hope they do.”