BARTLETT, Tenn. — A man credited with saving many people at a Bartlett apartment complex fire is recovering after he sustained second-degree burns over parts of his body last Thursday.
The fire occurred at Quail Ridge Apartments off Egypt Central in Bartlett Thursday morning around 7 a.m.
One man, Eric Johnson Jr., took it upon himself to frantically knock on the apartment complex doors to get everyone out, saving many lives.
No one was injured except for himself.
There’s an effort to help the man with the long road of recovery ahead of him with the help of a Go Fund Me page.
ABC24 crews spoke with friends of Johnson Jr. on Sept. 25, and they said many people were sound asleep last Thursday morning when the fire broke out.
Like many others at the apartment complex, Darron Price was asleep when he heard a frantic knock on his door.
“When I stood up, I’m hearing someone scream, 'You’ve got to get out. There’s a fire, there’s a fire,'" Price said. “I open the front door, and I can see the fire.”
Another neighbor said she got the same knock waking her from sound sleep.
“I heard some more knocks, and then that’s when I heard, 'Fire, fire, fire!' Then we just ran out of the house," she said.
According to a Go Fund Me page for Johnson Jr., he sustained second-degree burns to his hands, feet and face along with losing everything he owned.
The GoFundMe page created to help Johnson Jr. recover after his heroic acts aimed to raise $15,000.
It hit more than $27,000 Wednesday afternoon.
So nearly a week after the smoke cleared, Johnson Jr. still has a hard road ahead, but it’s a road his friends said he can share with the people he saved.
"All I can say is thank you," said one neighbor. "If the smoke alarms did not go off, nobody would’ve heard a thing, so he risked his life to save everybody's."
Price and another neighbor both called Johnson Jr. a hero.
You can donate to help Johnson Jr. HERE.