Incredible footage has revealed the moment the courageous son of a former Wrexham boss saved his elderly neighbour from a house fire in the dead of night. Joel Keates, whose dad Dean had two spells in charge of the Hollywood-owned club, was up late ordering a McDonald’s delivery at his Altrincham home in the early hours of Friday morning (April 4), when he heard screams from outside.
The 17-year-old dashed downstairs to see smoke billowing from his elderly neighbour’s windows and flames taking over. Without hesitation, Joel rang the fire brigade before rushing back to rouse his dad Dean, who was also Wrexham’s captain in his playing days, and step-mum Emily Haddock for additional assistance.
The family succeeded in getting their neighbour to safety, with no serious injuries reported. The entire astonishing incident was recorded on Dean and Emily’s Ring doorbell camera.
The chilling footage shows Joel sprinting to answer his neighbour’s cries before returning home and calling for help, as dense smoke fills the air. “It was around 2am, and I’d ordered a McDonald’s to the house because I’d just broken up for the Easter holidays,” Joel told the Manchester Evening News.
“I was sat up in my room and I heard screaming so I went to have a look. It was pretty obvious there was a fire, there was smoke coming out of the windows and the roof – the house hadn’t gone up in flames since but it did soon after.”
The A-level student, who is currently preparing for his exams, revealed that he didn’t think twice before rushing to the scene. He said: “I didn’t really have a second thought,” he said. “I’m not sure what was going through my mind.”
After helping his neighbour to safety, Joel described her as ‘very shaken up’ and said she asked him to stay with her while he fetched her some blankets and a coat.
“I don’t think the realisation of what happened has really hit me yet,” he said. “It’s still not fully in my head that that’s what I went and did.”
Joel’s stepmum, Emily, expressed the family’s immense pride in his quick thinking and bravery. She said: “We’ve lived there for six years, and it’s an elderly neighbour who we know pretty well. We’re extraordinarily proud of him and how brave he was.
“He initially thought someone was being stabbed, so he was so brave to even come out and see what was going on. As you can see in the video, without a second thought he just ran to help. We’re very proud of him.”
Dean Keates played over 150 games for Wrexham between 2010 and 2015 and had two stints as manager after his retirement. He was in charge between 2016 and 2018 before leaving to manage boyhood club Walsall, then returning in 2019.
He was also the man in the dugout when Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took over the club in 2021. Viewers of the ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ series saw Dean in the hotseat as huge changes hit the Racecourse Ground, before the 2020/21 season ultimately fizzled out as they missed out on the play offs.
The result was his contract not being renewed as the club went in a different direction and appointed Phil Parkinson.
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