Hero makes life-saving grab: Catches tot tossed from house fire

Published: July 7, 2006 | 4420th good news item since 2003

Russell Reynolds, a Brockton auto mechanic, was on his way to work at 5:45 a.m. yesterday when he came upon a fast-moving house fire on Montello Street in Brockton. His quick action helped save lives.

Eleven people were hospitalized, including a 2-month-old baby who is in intensive care at Massachusetts General Hospital, said Russell, who visited the child’s family and other victims at area hospitals yesterday. The Plymouth district attorney is investigating the cause of the fire.

I came over the bridge on Grove Street. It was pouring rain out and I saw a mushroom cloud.

(The house) was, like, orange. I saw the first floor was fully involved in flames. There were people standing across the street and they didn’t want to get involved. I was wondering why no one else was doing anything. [Everyday Heroes : Inspiring Stories of Ordinary People Who Made a Difference]

I heard people on the first floor.

I kicked in the front door. I got midway to the second floor and the fire and flames were coming up through.

The voices were coming from downstairs. There was a lot of powerful screaming. It wasn’t a cry for help. It was a deathly cry.

The people on the second floor were asleep. When I got to the second floor, I kicked the door again.

The door would not open. I came back down the hallway.

I said, “Go to the front of the house. Go to the light. Follow the light. Follow my voice.”

That’s when the father started kicking the window. He was swinging the baby. I said, “Throw the baby. Throw the kids.”

First came the 2-year-old.

“It was like catching a football. It was just like, I didn’t fall down or anything.”

Then came a 7-year-old, 12-year-old and the children’s parents.

When the mother came down, she landed on the people, all of us.

I could still hear the people on the third floor.

By this time, firefighters had arrived and rescued a 2-month-old infant and the baby’s family from the third floor. [Firefighting : Heroes of fire and rescue through history and around the world]

“They were doing CPR on the mother. (The infant) was covered with soot and black. It was not breathing. There was another relative. They were doing CPR, too.”

Reynolds and several witnesses said that, had he not ran into the building, the outcome would have been much worse.

“If I didn’t show up when I did, there would definitely be fatalities.”

Published in Heroes, Kids & Teens and Rescues
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