For the better part of seven decades, Ed 'Kip' Malone has wondered what happened to the young sisters he saved from a burning home in 1951. 
 
 Malone was just 12 years old, sent for a pound of butter from the store at Christmas time, when he came across a house fire on Central Street in St. John's. 
 
 Hearing shouts from the top floor of the home, Malone ran into the building, grabbed two young girls and herded them out the door. 
 
 The girls' grandmother died in the fire that gutted the house and left the Earle family — eight children and their parents — homeless. 
 
 Ed Malone - who goes by Kip - and Barbara Earle hold hands during an interview with CBC News on Thursday. (CBC) 
 
 Last week, Malone was reunited with those girls he saved — Margaret Fowler and Barbara Earle — at his new home in Conception Bay South. 
 
 Without any idea who his neighbours would be, Malone moved into the house beside Fowler in November. It's a reunion the trio says is more than just luck. 
 
 "It's a miracle as far as I'm concerned," Fowler told the St. John's Morning Show. "I think it was meant to be. Both of our parents are dead … and gone to heaven, I don't know but it was something happened up in heaven that our parents got us together." 
 
 "It's divine intervention," said Earle. "It was meant to be." 
 
 A home still stands at 6 Central St., where Kip Malone saved two sisters from a fire in 1951. (CBC) 
 
 Reunited at last 
 
 Malone — nicknamed Kip for his love of kippers, or smoked herring — said he spent years wondering what happened to Fowler and Earle, who were five and three years old, respectively, on the day of the fire, Dec. 20, 1951. 
 
 "I was only 12 at the time, and I didn't know anything about it, and didn't know anybody to ask. So I just let it go," he said. 
 
 "But I always knew what happened, and wondered. 'I wonder what became of these two children.' And I never did find out." 
 
 Malone's life took him to Ontario, but his retirement brought him back home, and into the lives of Fowler and Earle again. 
 
 For Malone, that's not the only thing that was divinely inspired. He said God had a hand in the rescue as well. 
 
 When he came across the burning home on Central Street, he heard a woman on the third floor yelling for someone to help her children. He says he ran into the smoky building, and up the stairs. 
 
 But when he tried to take Fowler out, she wouldn't go, because somewhere, Earle was still stuck inside the home. 
 
 A newspaper clipping from 1951 documented the house fire, and the community's response, including donations from schoolmates of some of the eight children in the Earle family. (CBC) 
 
 "She had no idea [where Earle was], and no more did I," Malone said. He searched another room in the house, but couldn't see anything. 
 
 "But I knew there was a little girl somewhere," he said. "And so, I think it was the man upstairs that said to me 'sweep your hand under the bed' and I did, and I grabbed the little girl. So now I had two, so out I went." 
 
 'I couldn't get over it' 
 
 Neither of the neighbours recognized each other at first. It was only when they got to telling stories that the connection was made. 
 
 "When Kip told us that, I couldn't get over it," Fowler said. 
 
 "She just looked at me and nearly fainted," Malone added. 
 
 Kip Malone poses for a photo with his mother when he was 14. (CBC) 
 
 The women said they knew very little about the fire and it was too painful to ask their mother and father for any details. 
 
 Earle said she never even knew she had a hero, until she met Malone last week. 
 
 "I feel so blessed," she said. "If it wasn't for Kip, I wouldn't be here today and have the beautiful wonderful life and family that I have. 
 
 "How do you thank him, only to say thank you? I mean, there will always be this connection with us. And that I love you. I don't know what else to say." 
 
 Kip Malone, Barbara Earle and Margaret Fowler speak on Thursday, almost 65 years after Malone rescued the pair from a burning home. (CBC) 
 
 For Malone, the reunion has answered questions he always had about the family that left the neighbourhood after the fire. 
 
 "I'm going to have to digest it for a while, because for a lot of years I've wondered what became of the two little girls," he said. "And I've only just found out — two beautiful women with families. So I'm very happy for it." 
 
 The group is convinced their reunion is more than just luck. 
 
 "It's not just a coincidence," Earle said. 
 
 "No, It can't be," Malone added. ||||| ST. JOHN’S — If you don’t believe in fate, you just might after speaking with Kip Malone. 
 
 He certainly sent shivers down my spine Thursday afternoon. 
 
 Sixty-five years ago, on Dec. 20, 1951, his mother sent him to the store for a pound of butter. 
 
 He would return to their Flower Hill home an unsung hero. 
 
 The store — McGrath’s — was on Central Street, and while walking that road, the then 12-year-old happened upon a house fire. 
 
 From the third floor, a woman pleaded for him to save the children. 
 
 He entered the house, ran up the stairs and found a little girl. 
 
 He tried to get her out, but she wouldn’t go without her younger sister. 
 
 Smoke was filling the house. With the first girl in tow, Kip searched. He was about to give up when “something told me to keep looking — and I always believe it was the man upstairs. So I swept my hand under the bed, and sure enough, I grabbed the little girl.” 
 
 He quickly shuffled the two girls down the stairs, out the door and onto Central Street. 
 
 He didn’t know the girls or their family, and went on about his business that morning. His mother scolded him for taking so long, until he told her what had happened. 
 
 Now 77, Kip has spent most of his life wondering about the girls he saved. 
 
 He recently got some answers — and you might not believe how. 
 
 After living and raising a family in Ontario since the 1960s, Kip and his wife, Liz, decided to return to Newfoundland to spend their retirement. 
 
 They moved into a new house in the Chamberlains area of Conception Bay South in October. 
 
 Late last week, his next-door neighbour, Margaret Fowler, decided to introduce herself by bringing over some fish. 
 
 Between the jigs and reels, Kip noted he was from Flower Hill. 
 
 Margaret smiled and said she was from nearby Central Street. 
 
 He then recounted the story of the fire, and how he had always wondered what became of the girls. 
 
 Floored, Margaret said he didn’t have to wonder anymore — because she was the older girl he saved that December morning. 
 
 “I was flabbergasted,” says Margaret, who was five at the time. “I think I gave him a little kiss and a squeeze. I said, ‘That was me and my sister.’” 
 
 On Monday, Margaret introduced Kip to Barbara Earle, the little girl he pulled from under the bed. 
 
 “It was so emotional when I met (him),” says Barbara, who was three at the time of the fire. “Because of him, I’m here. I’ve had a wonderful life. Two wonderful children and grandchildren. A wonderful career as a teacher. … None of that would be possible without this hero. 
 
 “I also had to realize, had Marg not insisted on staying, Kip would not have known there was another child. … I can’t even think about what might have happened.” 
 
 The sisters remember little about the fire. It claimed their grandmother — the woman shouting, “Save the children” — so it was always an emotional, off-limits subject for their family. 
 
 “Mom was a 30-year-old with eight children. Dad was 33. Homeless. It was a very painful thing, so we never pressed for any details,” says Barbara. 
 
 Neither she nor Margaret had any idea how they got out of the burning house — until Kip told them last week. 
 
 “He’s my inspiration and my hero,” Barbara says. 
 
 Kip and Liz, and the sisters, wonder about the odds of the Malones buying a house next to Margaret. 
 
 So do I, and everyone else who’s heard about it. 
 
 Whatever word you use — fate, coincidence, etc. — the almost unexplainable reunion is giving Kip some closure and the sisters a new perspective. 
 
 Kip is spiritual about it. 
 
 “It means there’s a God in heaven above, and He saved (those) women,” he says. 
 
 “It almost seems like someone was working to make this happen,” Barbara says. “This was not a coincidence. This was meant to be.” 
 
 There’s no doubting that. 
 
 Steve Bartlett is managing editor of The Telegram. Reach him at sbartlett@thetelegram.com.
– When he was 12, Ed "Kip" Malone was on his way to the store to buy some butter when he happened upon a house on fire and heard a woman calling for someone to help her children. He ran inside and found two little girls, ages 3 and 5, and helped them out of the house. That was in 1951, and the Canadian man always wondered what happened to them. Then, this November, Malone moved into the house next door to Margaret Fowler—and while trading stories about their lives one day, they realized Fowler was one of the two little girls Malone had saved 65 years ago. He has since also been reunited with the other little girl, Fowler's sister Barbara Earle, and the trio told their story to the CBC's St. John's Morning Show this week. "She just looked at me and nearly fainted," Malone says of the moment Fowler told the story of the little girls he'd saved. He found Fowler first, but she refused to leave because her little sister was still somewhere in the house. Malone searched until he finally found Earle under a bed, then led both girls to safety, the Telegram reports. The fire killed the girls' grandmother, and left the girls, their six siblings, and their parents homeless. In the years since, their parents as well as Malone's parents have died. "It's a miracle as far as I'm concerned," Fowler says of the sisters' reunion with Malone. "I think it was meant to be. Both of our parents are dead ... something happened up in heaven that our parents got us together." Adds Earle, "How do you thank him, only to say thank you? I mean, there will always be this connection with us. And that I love you. I don't know what else to say."