Something didn’t sit well with Scott Corcoran on Friday, April 24, when he took his mother, Nancy, for a drive-by wave at his son’s home in Narragansett and for a glimpse of the water.

It was a windy day, and when he smelled smoke as he approached his son’s home, he thought it odd that anyone would be burning leaves. He didn’t find his son home, but before heading back to the highway, he decided to check out the neighborhood.

It’s a good thing he did.

“I had the feeling something could be up.”

His intuition proved reliable when he spotted smoke billowing from a house and 8- to 10-foot flames climbing the wall between the building and an attached garage. There was no car in the drive and it appeared no one was home.

Corcoran, who has an EMT license and was a Warwick Police Reserve officer in the 90s (the city has since eliminated the reserves), parked his car and headed toward the burning house. A woman, walking her dog, had also come upon the scene and Corcoran yelled to her to call 911.

He pounded on the front door, calling, “is anyone home?” As he was doing that a neighbor approached. She told him the family owned pets and together they banged on the door. They discovered the door unlocked and while the woman went to rescue a cat, Corcoran yelled up the stairs. An elderly man appeared with an expression “of what’s going on,” said Corcoran. Corcoran said the man had been watching television and was surprised to learn the house was on fire. The man quickly grabbed a dog and together they all left the house. Police and fire arrived only moments later and Corcoran rejoined his mother who had watched the situation unfold from the car.

Given the wind-blown fire and the height of the flames, Corcoran believes there was the potential the blaze could have trapped the man before he realized the seriousness of the situation. Firefighters quickly hit the fire, saving the house from serious damage.

A graduate of Pilgrim High School and the manager of The Vitamin Stop on Route 2, Corcoran never learned the name of the man nor did he bother giving a report to police or fire.

“She got quite a ride and a show,” he said of his mother.

And now more than ever, he trusts his intuition.