FedEx driver credited with calling firefighters to burning Harmony Township home

A FedEx driver is being credited for being in the right place at the right time and taking action, quickly getting crews to the scene of a fire in Harmony Township. 

John Shurko has been working for FedEx for three years, but he said he's never had to report anything like what he saw on Pioneer Drive. 

"I smell something burning, I hear the smoke alarm going off, I knock a couple times, I don't see anybody move inside," he said. 

Shurko says he delivers to the home often, but doesn't personally know who lives there. Not wanting to take a chance, he made the better safe than sorry kind of call.

"I thought it was just somebody left the stove on, that was it, I was like, 'it's probably no big deal, but I better call just to be safe,' and it turns out it was a much bigger deal than I anticipated," he said. 

And it was. The homeowner was inside and in trouble.

"He somehow became unconscious while he was cooking, and then just was stuck in there, nobody heard him until I walked up and heard his smoke alarm blaring," Shurko said. 

Within minutes, Harmony Township volunteer firefighters and others broke through a locked door, finding the man unconscious, the first floor filled with smoke and a pan of pierogies burning on the stove.

"The fire department showed up within a minute or two, they busted the door open, they found the guy unconscious, they got him to a hospital very quick," he said.

Crews were able to ventilate and secure the home, while paramedics took the man, who at the time was in critical condition, to the hospital. But through it all, Shurko's split-second decision may have saved his life.

"You're kind of a hero," KDKA-TV's Jessica Riley said. 

"It doesn't feel like it. I figured anybody would do the same thing, you know? I would hope someone would do that for me or my family," he said.