TEMPLE, Texas — It was just any other day for Gregory and Karicha Kennedy in their new home in South Temple, a place they moved to just the month prior. Some family stopped by to visit and had just left shortly before 4 p.m. on Sunday when a pounding on their front door shattered the mood.
"It's a day I'll never forget," Gregory said. "Hunter came and knocked on the door rather hard, so I'm thinking it's my son because he had just left."
Hunter Spangler is a door-to-door salesman for an energy company out of North Carolina. He on doors to help Texans save money by switching to solar panels on their homes.
"I was a street over and I was coming down and I just happened to look to my left and I thought that maybe somebody was lighting a charcoal grill and maybe used too much lighter fluid," Spangler said. "I went for a closer look and black smoke was starting to roll out."
Spangler said he sprinted down the street toward the home. By the time he got to the home a few seconds later, the fire was growing.
"By this time, it was actually coming up the side of the garage," he said. "I just ran up to the door and started beating on it."
Spangler said the Kennedys didn't come quickly to the door, so he threw the door open and started to yell.
"When I (saw) it was somebody I didn't know, I was kinda puzzled, but the first thing that came out of his mouth was your house is on fire," Gregory said.
From there, both Gregory and Hunter got the family out of the house before they went back inside the burning structure for the dogs.
"For someone to be like this guy was, I tried to tell him, he's my hero. I told him that and he said 'no I'm not' and I told him you're my hero," Gregory said.
"The first thing that came to mind was thinking about him opening the door and he could have lost his life and a lot of times my granddaughter is following him, so she could have been behind him," Karicha said.
Spangler said he isn't a hero.
"I'm just a guy that was put in a position that I (saw) and I acted," he said. "Love one another man. Treat everyone as human. It doesn't matter race, creed, gender, any of that. Just treat everybody as another human and love them."