GILBERT, S.C. — Three Gilbert high schoolers are being called heroes after helping fire victims on their way to school.
Toby Redd, Logan Cason and Cole Mullens go to Gilbert High School.
Like any high school student, they drove to class on a Thursday last month, but on their way they came across a rare sight.
"We were all going down (Highway) One and then we all saw a bunch of smoke and then we thought it was just a yard fire, but then it was too dense I guess and we passed by and I turned back around and it was the roof that was on fire," Cason said.
The group agreed to pull over and make sure no one was inside the home.
"Cole and Toby and I, we were knocking on the doors and nobody had answered and then so we went around to the back and then we found the homeowners," Cason said.
"My wife got up, she looked and she said that there was, our house was on fire. And there were three boys that come up here, three young men that came up here and they were up here before we were, yelling to see if anyone was in the house," Kenneth Zeoli, homeowner said.
The homeowners tell News 19 they told the boys there were no people inside, but that their dog and cat were.
"We got him. He held him outside and then that's when she said there's a cat and so me and Logan go inside and try to find the cat and that cat was running everywhere," Redd said.
This was all to help a stranger.
"They did a remarkable thing coming here and then after their classes they came back, to see if anybody needed anything ... Heroes... They didn't have to stop. They didn't have to go, turn around, come back, but that's what they did ... I'm very very proud of all three of them," Zeoli said.
So why'd they do it?
"My dad was a fireman, so it's natural for me," Redd said.
"In today's kind of world, it's like, nobody shows that they care and I just feel like it should be known that there are still people that were raised the correct way and respect other people's things and do the right thing," Cason said.
"My grandpa's a fire chief up in West Virginia," Mullens said.
The students tell News 19 animals chewed the wire of the homeowner's solar panels on their roof and the panel caught fire from the pine straw of the squirrel's nest.