Neighbor saves newly engaged couple from burning home

DAWSON COUNTY, Ga. - Saturday should have been a great night for Marcus Sneen and Catherine Chumbley. Sneen asked Chumbley, his girlfriend of nearly two years, to marry him. Chumbley said yes. But hours later, their night of dreams took a dreadful turn.

Sneen and Chumbley were fast asleep as a fire ripped through their Dawson County home. Across the street, their neighbor Travis Chastain was wide awake.

"I noticed the power flickering in my house and then I looked out the window and saw their house on fire," Travis Chastain said. "I put on my boots and ran over and didn't see anyone, but I knew they were home."

Chastain said he started yelling and banging on their home when he heard Sneen yell for help.

"I threw rocks at the windows and helped him get out," Chastain said.

Still stuck inside, Chumbley said her neighbor did the unthinkable.

"He risked his own life to save mine," Catherine Chumbley said. "I had a 15-foot drop and I was dangling there and he jumped up and helped get me out."

Chumbley and Sneen said they lost everything in the fire

"Our cars melted, my engagement ring," Chumbley said. "My daughter was at her grandmother's house that night, but we lost all of the baby stuff we had just gotten from her baby shower."

Chumbley and Sneen spent two nights in an area hospital.

"We got stitches," Sneen said. "We have bumps and bruises, but we are going to be okay."

Chumbley and Sneen said the only reason they are still alive is because of their neighbor.

"He's our hero," Chumbley said. "Without him, we wouldn't be here today. We would have burned up in that house"

"I don't consider myself a hero," Chastain said. "I'd hope someone would do that for me and my family."

Friends and relatives have set up a Go Fund Me page for Chumbley and Sneen: gofundme.com/se8e7-total-loss-in-house-fire