A woman in California is recovering in the hospital after a stranger and two helpers rescued her from her burning home.

One of her heroes, Nas Mohamed, was working as an Uber Eats driver and rushed to save her at her home in Vista, a city in San Diego County. Mohamed’s early morning drives are normally quiet, but early on Friday he smelled smoke and followed his nose into the fire.

“As soon as I got there, I started knocking on the door and the side. Then I looked back. I saw a man and he said to me, ‘I live here, I live here.’ ‘Is anyone home?'” Mohamed told NBC 7. I said, ‘Yes, my wife and two cats are inside.'”

Nas said he heard the man’s wife screaming in the trailer.

“He was literally by the fire,” Mohamed said. “The fire surrounded him. And I went in. I started calling him and kept saying, ‘Talk to me!’ Talk to me!’ “That was the worst part because I was breathing while talking to him.”

Mohamed said he eventually found him and tried to pull him to safety. However, they released their hands when the women screamed that their cats were still trapped.

“This was also a nightmare because I couldn’t find the window because of the smoke and my phone’s light wasn’t enough,” he said.

First responders arrived just in time to find them and help Mohamed lift her from the window and even save one of her cats.

Mohamed, who had no protective equipment, was also injured. As he watched video Friday afternoon of a sheriff’s deputy pulling him to safety and then gently laying him on the ground, breathless, he said the only emotion that surpassed his pain was the relief he felt when he heard the woman’s voice.

“I first started hearing him talk and I felt like, ‘He’s okay,'” Mohamed said. “At the same time, he said, ‘You know, my eyes are burning from the smoke, I can’t breathe. I can’. I can’t breathe. I felt like it was more of a relief than a pain, like I’m going to get better soon.’

Mohamed said the woman expressed her gratitude and wanted to know her name.

“He said, ‘What’s your name? What’s your name?'” Muhammad said. “Three, four times, you know, and I can’t breathe. I can’t speak. I started coughing and black stuff coming out of my mouth every time I talked. Finally I told him my name and he took my hand and said, ‘You saved me, you saved my life.’ I told him, ‘God saved us.’ ”

Mohamed had no medical background to educate him for the moment.

“As a man, you hear a woman – an old woman – screaming, burning, do you understand?” Muhammad said. “I can’t stay out.”

First responders airlifted the woman to the hospital but have not yet provided any information about her condition. Mohamed also spent the night in hospital after suffering burns and smoke inhalation.

Looking back on his morning, he said he was grateful to have been in the right place at the right time to save a life.

“There’s no need to hurt yourself or sacrifice yourself if you think it’s a losing game, but if you’re going to help someone, one person, someone with blood like you, do it,” Mohamed said. . “Why don’t you break a window or a door to help people?”

Mohamed, an interior painter who also does Uber Eats deliveries, spoke to NBC 7 on Friday after being awake for 25 hours. When asked about his plans for the rest of the day, he said he would take a nap and take the rest of the day off.

San Diego Sheriff’s Lt. Matt Carpenter said the cause of the fire is still under investigation, but he suspects the woman may have left food on the stove. She said it’s especially important to stay alert with the holidays and lots of cooking coming up.

The sheriff’s department released a statement praising Muhammad as well as his deputies’ roles in the rescue.

“I am incredibly proud of every deputy who responded to the call,” Carpenter was quoted as saying in the statement. “I also want to express my deepest gratitude to the brave community member who risked his safety to help a stranger. His courage and quick response played a critical role in saving a life.”