This man’s house caught fire on Super Bowl Sunday. He asked firefighters to save his Eagles flag.

Before the sun rose on Super Bowl Sunday, Don Bilger got a call no one wants to get: Your house is on fire.

Bilger, who grew up in King of Prussia and now lives in Gorham, N.H., was spending the weekend at his lake house, but his stepson was at home in the family’s 1880s Victorian. Luckily, Bilger’s stepson escaped unharmed and managed to get the dogs and cats out, too.

Bilger and his wife sped home after getting that 4:30 a.m. call, then stood on the sidewalk, watching firefighters attack flames shooting out of the roof. It took 30 emergency workers to put out the fire, and once it was safely extinguished, Bilger approached a firefighter he knew. Please, he said, rescue something very precious to me: my Eagles flag.

“If you’re an Eagles fan, your house can burn down, but you still care about the Super Bowl,” said Bilger.

Though he moved to New England to run bed and breakfasts in 2005, Bilger spent 45 years in the Philadelphia area, and Eagles fans know that does not leave you.

So Bilger’s firefighter friend grabbed the flag, coated in ice from the gallons and gallons of water used to extinguish the fire. It felt like a symbol, Bilger said — the Eagles are resilient, like their fans, and the team can withstand much.

Bilger sold his last inn last year, but in 2023, he declared his place the official Eagles Super Bowl watch party site.

“Unfortunately, only 10 people showed up,” said Bilger.

Didn’t matter. He’s devoted to the Birds, and so is his 10-year-old daughter, Ali, who proudly wears her Jalen Hurts jersey to school twice a week.

The Bilger father and daughter are such diehards, he said, that the sting of losing his home was tempered Sunday by excitement over the Eagles playing in the Super Bowl.

Of course, if the Birds don’t prevail against Kansas City, Sunday might end up “being the worst day of my life,” he said.

It’s unclear whether the house will be a total loss — at least a third of it was completely destroyed, and the rest has gallons of water still inside. But Bilger is feeling good about the Eagles’ chances — control Patrick Mahomes, and the Eagles will win, he said.

On Monday, he’ll be back at his house to meet an insurance adjuster.

“Hopefully,” he said, “I’ll have a smile on my face.”