SANFORD — It was 3 p.m. on an October afternoon and Paul Auger was behind the wheel of his van, his son Andrew in the passenger seat, when he heard yelling in the area of The City tobacco and beverage store on River Street in Sanford.

He looked up, and saw that the third-floor porch of a three-story building at 41 River St. was ablaze.

At that point, there were no sirens sounding and Auger wasn’t sure if the fire department had been notified. Auger said he thought someone might be still inside. He told Andrew to stay put.

“I had a really bad feeling that there might be people in the building, and those old buildings can go up really, really fast,” said Auger in an interview Tuesday.

He also knew that some people in that neighborhood are shift workers and could be asleep, and he pointed out, some of those old buildings are quite soundproof.

As he was headed to the building, he ran into an old high school friend, Sanford Fire Department Captain Scott Lizotte, who was off duty but like Auger, happened to be in the neighborhood. The two headed into the building.

The second floor was empty but the door to the third-floor apartment was locked.

Auger, who was a Sanford Police officer before he began his teaching career, broke it open and began trying doors inside the apartment.

“No one was responding,” said Auger. “In the back I banged on a door and yelled again. As soon as I did, the door opened. I recognized the person. She must have been sound asleep. I told her the building was on fire and we had to get out right now. … When she got down I ran back up and finished searching the floor. We just made it out when the whole porch went up.”

Auger said Lizotte deserves a lot of credit. “I don’t know how it would have turned out if he hadn’t been there.”

For his efforts that day, Auger was presented with a Citizens Life Saving Award from Sanford Fire Chief Steve Benotti during the Sanford City Council meeting on Tuesday.

It was one of two announced that evening.

”Your bravery and unselfishness made a difference in someone’s life,” Benotti said.

Reflecting later on what transpired, Auger said: “The important thing was everyone was okay.”

Zach Boutilier, who was driving on Morrison Road around 3 a.m. one May morning and saw flames was also a recipient of a Citizens Life Saving Award. He was unable to attend the City Council meeting where the award was announced.

Boutilier, in an interview following the May fire, said he thought the flames he saw as he was driving by were from a bonfire at first, then he and his brother, Jase Moneypenny, sprang into action.

“Then I realized it was the house, so I pulled in this guy’s driveway immediately and went up to the door and pounded on it,” Boutilier said Sunday morning.

All six residents of the home got out safely.

Boutilier said the situation was scary.

He said as he ran up to the door, he was thinking of the people inside.

“I’m very happy I could be their hero,” he said at the time.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.