BELLEVUE, Neb. (KMTV) — In the wee hours of Christmas morning, Aly Lehman heard a commotion and first thought she was getting robbed, instead her and her husband realized they needed to get out fast.
"Saw that our front room was glowing orange from the fire on our next door neighbors balcony that was fully engulfed in flames," says Aly Lehman.
Aly quickly grabbed their dog and Christmas presents, while her husband John snagged their safe, they both ran out of the apartment while the building continued to burn.
"Yeah everything is gone," says Lehman.
Well not quite everything, while inspecting the rooms, a Bellevue firefighter saw a sign made before Aly and John got married this year, eventually another firefighter gave it to Aly.
"It was amazing that instead of just putting out the fire, they were able to see that and rip it off our wall and give it back," says Lehman.
But that wasn't all, the same firefighter that snagged the sign, also was able to locate Aly's wedding dress and return that.
"I mean out of all the things that they could have saved, that was probably the most important thing, everything else from our wedding, all our family pictures are gone so that's the only thing we have left from our wedding," says Lehman.
With so much going on at the time, Aly didn't catch the firefighters name but we tracked him down.
Battalion chief Kurt Strachota says another firefighter initially saw the sign, put it near the door and eventually Strachota on two separate trips, grabbed the items.
"Especially that it's Christmas, it was nice to be able to at least do that for them, I know they lost everything else," says Strachota.
Aly says she'd like to thank him again personally, but she already showed her appreciation that night.
"I grabbed the wedding dress threw it at my husband and hugged the firefighter."
