A couple in Buffalo, Minnesota is getting recognized for doing their part to help people escape a burning house.

The fire happened Wednesday afternoon near Division Street and 4th Avenue Northwest.

The Buffalo Fire Department is now thanking the neighbors for their quick response.

On Wednesday afternoon around 3:00 p.m., Reanna Schlosser and her fiancé Matthew Stewart sat on their porch two houses down, knowing something wasn’t right

“We smelled smoke and we thought it kind of smells like a house fire type of thing,” said Reanna Schlosser.

“About 10 minutes later we heard a big explosion,” said Matthew Stewart, Reanna’s fiancé.

That’s when Stewart ran over with his fire extinguisher.

“I kept saying ‘Hey your house is on fire, is anybody home?'” Stewart said.

Stewart says the people on the first floor of the duplex didn’t even smell the smoke. But they weren’t sure if the upstairs tenant was home, so he went to find out.

“I said ‘Hey if anyone is in here the fire department is on their way, I’m leaving I’m getting out.’ If I would have stayed any longer it probably would have been a body recovery,” Stewart said.

Turns out no one was upstairs and all three people on the first floor made it out safely. Stewart needed oxygen after making it outside.

“I had severe breathing issues, I was coughing and I knew the thick black smoke immediately when I inhaled it I almost lost completely all breath,” Stewart said.

Schlosser works in healthcare and knows a thing or two about stressful situations.

“That’s my field, that’s what I do for a living, I want to make sure everyone is okay,” Schlosser said.

Schlosser and Stewart don’t want to be called heroes, but they’re grateful knowing they did their part.

“I’m very glad that everyone is okay,” Schlosser said.

“I felt that if it was my family, and my newborn daughter or myself that I would want the same for me, I didn’t think twice,” Stewart said.

The cause of this fire is still under investigation, and the people who live in the house that caught fire are staying somewhere else in the meantime.