While his home burned around him, neighbors say a man stayed to rescue his children

A father of five is dead after he helped rescue at least five children from an early morning blaze in Clayton County Thursday, according to CBS 46 and other local outlets.

It was 2:18 a.m. when neighbors reported a fire at a Forest Park home, slightly south of Atlanta, reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

A neighbor told the paper he saw a father "hanging the kids out the window" to get them out of the building.

Five children between the ages of 6 and 13, as well as a woman, were outside the home when emergency officials arrived to fight the fire, WSB-TV reported.

"We see that woman out here screaming. I see a kid over talking about, help. We go over there, there's like two of them out and then he's shoving them out the window," Jacob Stewart, a neighbor, told WXIA.

"We understand from the neighbors that he was actively trying to assist in getting the children out of the house," an official at the scene told the AJC.

"He died saving his children. He's the real hero," Stewart told the WXIA.

The woman was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital for smoke inhalation while the children were treated for minor cuts and scrapes. Authorities had not been able to speak to her yet about a possible cause of the blaze, WSB-TV reported.

This story was originally published February 1, 2018 at 2:38 PM with the headline "While his home burned around him, neighbors say a man stayed to rescue his children."