Family reunited with man who saved them from burning home

ST. CLOUD, Fla. — The city of St. Cloud honored a man who saved a family from a burning home.

Two days before Christmas, a good Samaritan knocked on the door of a burning home to alert the family inside.

Channel Nine Eyewitness News' Jorge Estevez reunited the family with the man they call their angel, whose name happens to be Gabriel.

"The flames start there," said Gabriel Esquef, who walked Estevez through what he saw that morning before firefighters arrived at the burning house.

"You saw the flames," asked Estevez.

"Yes. Right there," said Esquef, who said he ran from the street to the door to alert the family.

"I knock the door here hard two times," said Esquef, who said he banged on the door a second time when no one would answer.

Mike Logsdon met with Esquef outside the now-destroyed home in St Cloud.

"If it wasn't for this guy here, we would have been trapped inside," said Logsdon as he motioned to Esquef.

Esquef said it was just by chance that he was in the neighborhood and saw the flames.

"What were you doing at that time?" asked Estevez.

"Delivering newspapers. I delivered newspapers and saw the fire," said Esquef, who was helping his mother-in-law in the early hours of the morning.

Logsdon said Esquef saved the family that day. The family included two brothers, one of them a 5-year-old who his family said has been taking it the hardest.

"He doesn't understand why he can't go home," said Cathy Logsdon, the boys' grandmother.

She said had it not been for the reluctant hero, it could have been a much different story.

"Angel is your new name," said Cathy Logsdon to Esquef.

Esquef was not the only one who helped. Strangers came on Christmas morning to donate toys and supplies for the family, which is looking for a permanent home.

WFTV