Behold the American Hero Who Saved His Prized Ribs from a House Fire

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. There are the uniformed men and women who protect our nation on the front lines in the face of gunfire and constant danger in unfamiliar territories, and the humble citizens who would throw themselves in front of a moving train to save a total stranger. There are the teenagers who help little old ladies cross the street, and pilots who are able to overcome their own fear and panic in order to safely land planes in impossible situations.

And then, there's Robert Wright. A man who saved the lives of not only his family, but also his rack of damn good beef ribs.

Wright was barbecuing some ribs at his Fresno, CA, home at 3 AM on Tuesday—absolutely a normal time to be doing some casual grilling—when he suddenly saw flames shooting out of the window of an apartment in his building.

"I was barbecuing and I just seen some fire coming out the window, man," Wright told KMPH Fox 26 in a televised interview. "The only thing I think first, man, 'Make sure those ribs is right.' [Then] I ran over and got my family, man. I (brought) everybody out safely, man."

Thinking fast, he rushed into the building, woke up his children, and carried them outside. And once the human lives were accounted for, Wright had more precious bounty to save from the flames as well: his ribs. Ribs can take hours to marinate and cook properly, and there was no way in hell—or hellfire—that Wright was going to let his late-night meal perish into a state of charred black.

"I got my kids first, and then I thought about my ribs and I didn't want to let my ribs burn, 'cause I take pride in what I do," Wright told KMPH, holding up the rack of ribs to showcase their quality. "It's like three o'clock in the morning and I was hungry, man. Like put some ribs on there, man. Some hot links and stuff, we got it going and stuff."

Another mother and son in the complex escaped through a back window, but were hospitalized for smoke inhalation.

Not Robert. Although he also inhaled quite a bit of smoke, it didn't really bother him. "I didn't get no injuries and stuff except for the smoke in my lungs and stuff, but I already had smoke in my lungs, so I'm alright," he told reporters.

Wright ultimately seemed very relieved and proud to have escaped the fire with both his family and his meat intact. "It was frantic, man, it was real serious out there," he says of the fire. But all's well that ends well.

"I'm gonna enjoy this barbecue," he says cheerily at the end of his interview.

There's another sign of a true hero: nonchalance about his own brave deeds. And thankfully, he has both his children and his tender slabs of meat as a reward.