By Kyle Coppola
Leesburg Neighbor Pulls Disabled Man from Burning Home
A Leesburg man says he didn’t hesitate to help Sunday morning after spotting flames coming from his neighbor’s home while talking and playing an internet card game with his sister in Indiana.
“We finished our game. I got up and turned around and sure enough, I saw the house on fire,” Lenny Webb says.
Lenny, a former volunteer firefighter in Indiana for 12 years, says he immediately went to help his neighbor Steve, who he knew was disabled and had lived in the home for about a decade.
“I knew the man whose name is Steve was disabled,” Lenny says. “The smoke was so thick and it was hard to see inside the house, but then at times the wind would lift the smoke and you could see inside.”
Lenny says he searched for his neighbor but initially couldn’t find him. As the smoke briefly cleared, he spotted Steve lying unconscious near the front stoop.
“He was on the ground unconscious. I almost tripped over him because I didn’t see him until I was right on top of him,” Lenny says.
Despite suffering from COPD and asthma, Lenny says he covered his mouth with his shirt before trying to pull Steve away from the burning home.
“I immediately tried to drag him away from the house, and I was able to drag him about 7 or 8 feet,” Lenny says. “I got my wife to wave down another neighbor, and her husband came to help. The police got there, and we were able to get him away from the burning house.”
Lenny estimates the home had been burning for 15 to 20 minutes before he reached it, based on the popping and cracking sounds he heard.
According to Lenny, Steve was taken to a burn trauma center. At the time Lenny shared his account, he says Steve remained alive but had not regained consciousness.
“I would hope anyone does the same as me if they saw something like that,” Lenny says. “You just did what you had to do.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, according to Lexie Farmer, communications manager for Lake County Fire Rescue.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
Photos provided by: Renee Rebel and Lenny Webb
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
