'We had to help our neighbors' Men brave flames to pull trapped neighbor from burning Texas home

CYPRESS, Texas -- A man is alive thanks to a pair of neighbors who rescued him from his burning home in Texas.

The fire started in the garage and then spread to the house on Stable Brook Circle at Stable Creek Circle in Cypress.

Firefighters said they were called out to the same home earlier in the night to put out a fire before the homeowner called at 3:20 a.m. Tuesday to report the flames.

By the time neighbors saw what was happening, the flames were shooting out of the home.

One woman escaped on her own, but the flames did not stop Marco Bergen and Chad Mouhot from going in the smoke-filled house to save a man's life.

"I went to grab a water hose just to help put it out and someone yelled, 'The man is upstairs!'" said Bergen.

From that moment, Bergen knew what he had to do. He ran to the front door of the burning home and opened it.

"When I opened the front door, the black smoke was so thick, it actually knocked me in the face and I almost passed out," Bergen told KTRK.

Bergen did not let that stop him. He took a deep breath, went inside and started yelling out for his neighbor.

"I could hear something barely, and I said, 'Be quiet.' Someone was yelling behind me and then I finally heard him, and I asked for a flashlight," said Bergen.

"We had to help our neighbors," Mouhot added.

Mouhot used his phone's flashlight and joined the search for the missing neighbor.

By now, the smoke was so thick, the men were crawling about five to six feet under the smoke.

As the flames grew, they spotted their neighbor, explaining that they grabbed him by the legs and pulled him out.

"Luckily, we saw the bottom of his feet and that is when we snapped in and grabbed him. We took in the smoke just long enough to grab him and drag him out," said Mouhot.

The men got their neighbor to safety.

At first the victim was not breathing, but he was revived.

He was said to be talking before being taken to a hospital for observation.

"Firemen and police cannot always be there when we need them at that moment, so sometimes we have to step in and do something about it," said Mouhot.

The man and woman who live at the home were both treated for smoke inhalation.

Bergen and Mouhot were also given oxygen, but they will be okay.

A firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion.

The Harris County Fire Marshal's Office determined the fire was caused by improperly discarded smoking materials in the garage.

The fire has been ruled accidental.