RED SPRINGS — Michael “Stump” Haskins doesn’t think of himself as a hero. He just says he is someone who was in the right place at the right time.

But firefighters and others who know the danger the Saddletree resident put himself into when he entered a burning house last week to rescue strangers think differently.

“If he hadn’t gone in there when he did, there could have easily been at least one fatality,” said Dwayne Locklear, a member of the Burnt Swamp/Philadelphus Volunteer Fire Department. “In my opinion, he’s a real hero.”

Haskins, 52, was driving down Lewis McNeil Road — near Red Springs — a week ago today at about 5:30 a.m. when he saw flames coming out of a small house just off the roadway.

“I didn’t know who lived there, but I had seen an older lady in the yard ... when I’d been driving to work,” Haskins said. “I just grabbed my cell phone and called 911.”

Haskins, who served in the military for 13 years, said that through the glare of the flames he saw an older gentleman sitting on the porch in a wheelchair.

“I just hung up on the 911 dispatcher, who was asking me all kinds of questions, and ran over to the fence and ripped part of it off so I could get onto the property,” he said. “When I got over to the porch, I heard someone just inside the doorway saying ‘I can’t find my husband.’ When I looked inside, I saw an older woman walking around with a quilt over her head.”

Haskins said he said he could see flames moving toward the front of the house where he and the woman were standing.

“She just kept saying she couldn’t find her husband,’’ he said. “I didn’t want to hurt her, so I just tugged gently on her arm to try to get her out the door. I told her to let me take her to safety and then I would come back and look for her husband.”

Haskins said he finally got the woman out the door and onto the porch. Leading her by the arm he got to the man in the wheelchair and started to lead them down a ramp and off the porch.

“I had just moved about three feet from the door when behind me I heard this big whoosh sound and flames shot out the door about 10 or 11 feet. The house was then totally engulfed in flames.

“I could feel the heat on the back of my neck. As we started to move to the ramp, a piece of burning vinyl fell on the man in the wheelchair. I got it off of him and stomped out the flames.”

Haskins said he seemed to be playing a part in a movie.

“I didn’t think about my own safety. All I could think about was getting these folks out of the house and off of the porch. I didn’t want anyone to perish,” he said. “I know it was only minutes and I was moving, but it seemed like an eternity.”

When he finally got the woman and man in the wheelchair safely out to the roadway, he saw another man — who had difficulty walking — come around the side of the burning house. He said he returned to help the man get to safety.

By then a deputy with the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office was on the scene and firefighters were not far behind, Haskins said.

Haskins said it was quickly determined that no one else was in the home. According to one of the men he had helped to safety, the woman Haskins brought out of the house was his mother, who is suffering with Alzheimer’s disease. Her husband was not in the home.

According to Locklear, the fire department’s report lists those brought to safety by Haskins as the home’s owner, Zelma Maynor, 81, and her two sons, Bonford Maynor Jr., 54, and Earldon Maynor, 49. There wer no serious injuries.

Locklear said that it appears the blaze may have started in a bedroom in the back of the house.

“We don’t know the exact cause yet,” Locklear said late last week. “We’re waiting to hear from the Fire Marshal’s office.”

According to Quitmon Emanuel, who is married to Zelma’s daughter Elizabeth, Zelma and one of her sons are staying temporarily with Zelma’s sister in Pembroke. Zelma’s other son is temporarily staying with Elizabeth and Quitmon.

Elizabeth Emanuel told The Robesonian on Friday that her family is “just so grateful” for what Haskins had done.

“I talked with him last night, and I want to say that I am eternally grateful for what he did,” she said. “I did not know what had happened up there. I told him that this is his story to be told.”

Haskins said it was unusual for him to be on the road heading to work at 5:30 in the morning.

“I couldn’t sleep and just decided I’d go into work a couple of hours early,” he said.

Haskins is a maintenance supervisor for the House of Raeford Chicken Division in Maxton.

“I just can’t figure out what made me leave early that morning,” Haskins said. “Maybe it was divine intervention. I believe that things happen for a reason. I don’t consider myself a hero. I’m just glad I was there at the right time.”