Visitors to Martin Luther King Jr.'s birth home stop a woman from setting fire to it

A woman is facing charges after pouring what appears to be gasoline on the porch of the Queen Anne style house in Atlanta where Martin Luther King Jr. spent the first 12 years of his life. The home was not damaged. (Historic American Buildings Survey/ Library of Congress)

The scene had all the makings of a horrific tragedy: On Thursday, a woman emptied what looked to be a large red can of gasoline all over the front porch of the house where Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta. She was seemingly intent on burning the historic home down.

But two visitors from Utah who had come to see the historic site were watching the woman — and they acted quickly to save it, standing in her way when she tried to bring a lighter onto the porch. When the woman tried to leave the scene, two other visitors stopped her and held her until police arrived.