Patrick Watts and Deandre Fuller are heroes — literally.

Thursday afternoon as they walked down Minter Avenue, they heard a cry for help.

“We heard the cry and saw the smoke,” Watts said.

“Deandre got there first on the bike and pushed the old lady out.”

Fuller called the Selma Fire Department before he got in the house on Tremont Street.

Battalion Chief Andy Dearman said the fire department received a call for a structure fire at 1:21 p.m. Thursday.

The first units on the scene arrived two minutes later. The house was ablaze.

Dearman said a person was in the house, but was out by the time firefighters arrived.

Said Watts, “Deandre got her out and I pushed her down the street away from the house. We went back for the guy, but he had already gone out the back.

Firefighters worked on the fire and had it cleared up by 3:20 p.m., according to Dearman.

Watts said the event was scary. “But I thought, ‘What if this was my grandmother or mother?’ After we got her out, I was feeling good and relieved.

The cause of the fire is unknown and under investigation.