Winder Farms >> About Us >> Winder In The News > 4/29/2006 - Milkman delivers milk, saves family from fire

A milkman's job can be dangerous. At least it was for one Winder Farms delivery man Thursday morning.

While performing his regular early morning duties of delivering milk to his customers, Stuart Wood noticed smoke and flames coming from the porch of a home in Layton he's been servicing for nearly three months. He reacted quickly and secured a lifelong customer.

"I saw a pile of logs glowing like a campfire and when it burst into flames, my first thought was that I had to get the family out," he said. When no one answered the door, Wood broke into the home, near 1300 North and 2300 East, only to meet a barking dog and a sleepy homeowner.

With a little bit of help, he single-handedly saved the home from further damage.

"If it wasn't for him, holy cow, our house would have burned down," said Tanya Filtz. She wasn't home at the time, but her husband, Ron Filtz and two young daughters were. She said what Wood did for them is priceless and can't be rewarded by a simple tip.

"He kind of delivered us twice that day," he said. "He delivered our lives and then our milk."

It was just after 3 a.m. and he couldn't remember where an extinguisher was. Filtz said Wood asked about a hose and immediately went about putting out the fire. They never called the fire department for help.

"After the fire was out, he delivered the milk and was on his way," he said. The family feels lucky for a number of things, including that Wood was running a tiny bit late that day.

It isn't often that delivery people are called on to perform such tasks as putting out fires, said Winder Farms northern Utah manager Butch Rognon.

"They're out there in the middle of the night and not a lot of people are out, so if something goes wrong, they're going to know about it," he said.

However, Rognon believes any one of his carriers would have done the same thing for a customer. "They kind of take an ownership of their route and build a rapport with their customers," he said.

After putting out the fire, Wood said he drove a ways down the road but had to pull over and call his own family.

"I saw how fast it turned into a huge fire, it was just five steps," he said. "It made me really appreciate what I have." When he got home that day, his 4-year-old son wrapped his arms around him and told him how proud he was.

The fire started in a log pile on the porch of the Filtz home and was extinguished before it could cause much damage to the home.

"He's a true hero in our eyes and we can't thank him enough," Tanya Filtz said of Wood.

Ron Filtz said the family will continue buying the milk and he hopes Wood continues to be their milkman.

"It could've been so different," he said. "He just took the initiative to put it out. How do you say thanks for saving your life and your house?"