A Nantucket art consultant was pulled to safety by four strangers after a lightning strike ignited a fast-moving fire on the roof of her home.
Susan Hostetler, 71, and her cats escaped her $3.5 million house on July 18 after four summer camp counselors rushed to her front door during a powerful thunderstorm and pounded on it to warn her of the blaze.
Hostetler had been making strawberry ice cream that evening when a bolt of lightning hit the roof and sparked the fire, the Nantucket Current reported.
At first, the gallery owner brushed off the deafening crash and the alarm sounding inside her home, thinking a power surge had set it off.
‘And then I heard bang, bang, bang! And someone yelling, “Get out of your house! Your roof is on fire!”,’ Hostetler told the outlet.
She said she broke down in tears almost instantly, but the four strangers did not hesitate, entering the house and springing into action.
The rescuers — Libby Stockton, Lilla Sharman, Jakobe Stevens and Tabitha Myers — are all counselors at the Strong Wings summer camp, according to the outlet.
The group had just been leaving a nearby home when they noticed flames tearing through Hostetler’s roof and ran over to make sure the homeowner was safe.
Susan Hostetler, 71, seen with her late artist husband David, was saved from her burning $3.5 million home after four camp counselors banged on her door on July 18 during a thunderstorm
Hostetler’s heroes, Libby Stockton, Lilla Sharman, Jakobe Stevens and Tabitha Myers, called 911 and leapt into action putting Hostetler’s cats into carriers to escape outside
‘We saw the fire from a distance and we all kind of just collectively looked at each other and said, “We gotta make sure she’s okay,”‘ Stockton told the Current.
‘So, I jump out of the car while it’s still kind of moving, start to run over and Tabby, I believe, was right behind me as well. I was just slamming on Susan’s window, saying, “Yo, there’s a fire! There’s a fire!”
‘And Susan ran to the door and she said, “Is everything okay?” I said, “Yes, you’re gonna be fine, but there is a fire on your roof right now.”‘
The group called emergency responders and leapt into action locating Hostetler’s cats and putting them into carriers to escape outside.
While the home, which hosts a number of her late husband’s artworks, was severely damaged in the blaze, Hostetler described the group as her ‘golden angels who rescued me.’
‘It’s a big miracle,’ she said.
The home sustained water damage across all three floors, but she was able to save much of the artwork created by her husband David, who passed away at 88 years old in 2015.
‘The fire department got there so fast, so my house didn’t burn down,’ she told the outlet.
The gallery owner, however, had dismissed the loud lightning crash as well as the alarm that started going off in her home, believing it had been caused by a power surge
Her rescuers said they felt ‘very fortunate’ to have been in the ‘right place at the right time.’
‘I know for a fact that Jakobe, Lilla, Tabby, and I would do it all again in a heartbeat, and it’s just really nice to know that she knew she was safe, her cats are safe, and although I can’t imagine the type of trauma she endured, I am very thankful that everyone’s in one piece,’ Stockton told the outlet.
Hostetler now owns and directs the Hostetler Gallery in downtown Nantucket.
The Daily Mail reached out to Hostetler and the Nantucket Fire Department for comment.
