An elderly couple from Surrey, B.C. is worried for their son's life after the family narrowly escaped a house fire overnight.

The fire broke out at Vince Shoemaker's wood frame house on 116 Avenue and 140 Street, where the family has lived since 1954. Shoemaker said he had to drag his 83-year-old wife toward the door as smoke filled the home.

"It was so intense, you couldn't see nothing," he said.

Luckily, they were met at the entrance by two neighbours who had rushed to help after seeing the flames. Neil Prendeville, who lives right beside the family, said they did the best they could to get everyone out.

"Vince was right by the door so we grabbed him, pulled him out," Prendeville said. "He said he pulled his wife down the stairs so we reached in and grabbed her and just lifted her and carried her out."

The couple lives with three of their adult sons. Unfortunately, one of them didn't make it out on his own, and the fire was too intense for neighbours to grab him.

Firefighters arrived shortly after and managed to find the Shoemakers' son on the second floor. They performed CPR on him at the scene before he was taken to hospital, but Shoemaker said his condition is dire.

"I don't think he's going to make it," he said. "It's devastating."

Even more devastating is that the couple lost another child in a fire back in 1984.

"We've lived through it once and this is number two," Shoemaker said.

The couple is still extremely grateful to their neighbours and to the firefighters who responded to the blaze. Shoemaker said their close-knit neighbourhood has rallied behind them as they pick up the pieces.

"This is very traumatic for us," he said. "In a situation like that, if you have good people behind you it makes so much difference."

Fire crews said the two-alarm blaze was challenging to fight, largely because of the property's sloped backyard.

"There was no access from an alley or anything like that," acting Battalion Chief David Wyatt said. "It was all done with longer hose lines."

The cause of the fire hasn't been determined, but firefighters believe it likely started on the ground floor of the home. It is not considered suspicious.

With files from CTV Vancouver's Nafeesa Karim and Maria Weisgarber