3-alarm fire burns SoHo rooftop as neighbor aids firefighters with garden hose

A three-alarm fire erupted on the roof of a SoHo building, prompting a heroic response from a good Samaritan, ABC News 7 informs.

As firefighters battled the blaze atop 463 Broome Street, a man on a nearby rooftop sprang into action with his garden hose. Robert Lobe, a SoHo resident, was seen by NewsCopter7 spraying water across the gap between the buildings in an effort to help. 

"I'm a sculptor; my whole life is about doing stuff. It's just one more job," Lobe said. "I was pouring water between the buildings. I poured a lot of water down the chimney."

Firefighters worked tirelessly to prevent the fire from spreading to a neighboring building.

The fire began just after 6 a.m. More than an hour later, other residents of the neighboring building joined Lobe in his firefighting efforts, using buckets of water he handed out.

Meanwhile, the owner of Rudy's Music SoHo anxiously awaited access to his business on the ground floor. Once inside, he discovered the back wall of his store resembled a waterfall. He reported losing hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of instruments, including a single guitar valued at $500,000.

The fire severely damaged a seven-room, 2,400-square-foot rooftop penthouse that rents for $21,000 a month. The tenant's mother was inside the unit at the time of the fire but was unharmed thanks to the activation of sprinklers.

The unit's owner, who was in Italy at the time, was informed about the fire and immediately booked a flight back to the city.