Not All Heroes Wear Pants

“Keep your pants on” would have been good advice recently for a resident of Sumner, Wash.

And the advice would have been meant literally so that he would, seriously, wear pants to battle a raging inferno.

It was after midnight when Wesley Howard’s neighbor pounded on his door, alerting him to a fire next door.

From Howard’s experience over eight years in the Navy, he knew he had to act, not think.

So he got out of bed and charged out of the house to fight the fire.

Naked. Without a shirt. Or pants. Or underpants.

A smoldering firework in his neighbor’s garage likely ignited the conflagration, which spread to Howard’s fence just feet from both homes.

“I saw it was a raging fire. So, I had two options: run back in the bedroom and get some shorts or run straight downstairs outside, grab a hose, and start firefighting. So, that’s what I did,” he told KIRO 7.

He burned his toes on some embers, but his fearless and immodest act of bravery saved the day… and both homes.

“You train for it, but you never know how you’re going to act when the situation arises,” he said.

Both homes could have gone up in flames, Howard told The National Desk.

“At that point, I don’t care if someone sees me naked for a few seconds if that means saving two homes and two families,” Howard said. “They have kids; we have kids.”

Howard said he grabbed a garden hose and began fighting the flames.

“It’s a sinking feeling in my gut. It’s a situation you never expect to see up close,” Howard told KING 5.

After beating back the fire momentarily, Howard did take a moment to put on shorts until the fire and police departments arrived.

“100%, I would not hesitate again,” Howard said. “Naked, it doesn’t matter, I would do it again.”

However, he added, if given a choice, he would choose to wear pants.

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To read about another hero, check out this article on a Connecticut teen collecting items for families with babies in the NICU.