TONAWANDA -- April 19, 2010 started as most have for the past 24 years for U.S. Postal worker Thomas Matuszek. He sorted mail inside the Northside Post Office on Hertel Avenue before delivering mail in Tonawanda. Turns out it wasn’t a normal day. On his normal delivery run found an apartment complex on fire.

Matuszek describes what he saw. "I saw smoke coming out of the window, so I went upstairs. I heard Mrs. Stokes yelling, "help fire!" Matuszek found 84 year old Adele Stokes inside her Coventry Road apartment. Stokes was trying to put out flames on her stove. “He was marvelous. He shoed me out and was like don't you dare walk back in. And I didn't, I didn't. He's a great guy,” Stokes told us with a smile.

Matuszek rescued Stokes and alerted the other tenants in the building of the fire before going back into the smoky building a second time to turn off the stove. "We just got lucky that day. That's enough excitement for this old man for quite awhile,” Matuszek says.

Matuszek was honored Thursday with a Post Master General award for his heroic actions on that April Day. Receiving his award in front of his friends, colleagues, family, and Stokes herself.

The house suffered only minor damage. Only a stove was lost in the small blaze. "We got lucky that day. I was there at the right time. Everything worked out well, no one got hurt. I hear Adele lost her stove but we can replace things but we can't replace you," Matuszek said while pointing at Adele

It was the second time as a postal worker Matuszek was called on to be a hero. 12 years ago he saved an elderly man being dragged by a runaway car, running it down and slamming it into park.

Stokes and Matuszek never knew each other before the April fire....but now make it a point to see each other every day of the week.