Good neighbor saves family.

Lynn, Massachusetts, is most famous as the home of Marshmallow Fluff and the Fluffernutter sandwich. It is also the hometown of this writer's wife. At 4 a.m. on March 3, a two-alarm fire broke out in this north suburban Boston city, trapping Kenneth Anastos, his wife, Cheryl Young, and their 11-year-old son, Daniel, in their second-floor apartment.

Fortunately, the family's neighbor, Eric Smith, was up very early and on his way to work. As Smith described the event to WCVB-TV news in Boston: "I heard the window go out and I seen them, they said they had a ladder in the back, I got the ladder and came over. I leave my house every morning at the same time and just happened to be there, so, [it was] something everyone would have done."

Smith also called 911 on his cellphone, summoning the fire department. Anastos shared his recollections of events with the Boston Herald: "The room was filling with heavy black smoke and someone put a ladder up to the window. I handed my son out first and then my wife. I started throwing up and the stranger helped me down the ladder."

But Eric Smith did not stick around to accept the thanks of the family he had rescued, so they had no idea who he was. Before Anastos learned the identity of the rescuer, he told the Herald: "We went walking around when it got light out, thanking people and looking for the hero, but he couldn't be found. This stranger has our undying friendship and love, 'cause he saved our lives."