INDIANAPOLIS - Three people are in the hospital tonight after narrowly escaping a house fire on the city's south side Sunday morning.

Before firefighters got there, three neighbors risked their own lives to make a dangerous rescue.

They smelled smoke from their car and jumped into action to save a man's life.

Monday, they shared the story with RTV6.

"We get to right here at the corner and we see a house on fire, so we turned down here, see a lady standing by herself," said rescuer Stephen Scrogham.

"She was bleeding down her arm," rescuer Jessica Kibler said.

"We asked if she needed help. She said her husband was inside," Brian Boger, the third rescuer, said.

"That's when her nephew came around from the back and told us he couldn't get the back door open, so we ran around back," Scrogham said. "I started kicking the door. Couldn't get the door open. I think he was behind the door."

"Just getting the door open was our main concern," Boger said.

"The older lady that was living here, she kept wanting to go to the back, but the windows were all exploding out and it didn't look like a good thing to be walking by," Kibler said. "She was really concerned." "

"This house, it was engulfed in flames," Scrogham said.

"After we got the door open and the smoke came out and hit us both in the face, it was over from there," Boger said. "You couldn't see nothing."

"Like you couldn't even, you had to walk by the house like this (with your arm blocking your face)," Scrogham said. "It was that hot."

"The nephew wrapped a shirt around his face and went in behind the door, and that's where he was laying," Boger said.

"(Boger) held the door open and the nephew went inside and pulled him out, pulled him into the back yard and started CPR on him," Scrogham said.

"He was out of it. The guy was out of it," Boger said.

"Afterwards, man I don't know. It came over you and everything. Adrenaline stopped. I'm standing out here freezing, and I'm like man what the hell did I just do, you know?" Scrogham said.

"If he pulls through it would be great," Boger said.

"Hopefully everything works out and everybody makes it," Kibler said.

Of the four people inside the home at the time of the fire, two are at Wishard Memorial Hospital in fair condition, the man who was rescued is still in critical condition, and a 5-year-old girl has been treated and released.