Neighbour rescues senior from house fire
Published: May 21, 2007
David Fabi doesn’t consider himself a hero - just someone who did what anyone else would do in the same situation.
At about 7:30 a.m. Friday, Fabi, 52, was getting ready to drive his daughter Kate to Centennial Secondary in Welland.
Before getting in his truck, he thought he saw a wisp of fog under his neighbour’s eaves, some 300 feet away.
It took him a moment to realize his 81-year-old neighbour Bill Middelkoop’s house was on fire.
He ran over to the house and roused Middelkoop from a sound sleep.
“Everybody says I’m a hero. I don’t consider myself a hero. It’s what you do for a neighbour. You look out for each other.”
Smoke had not yet advanced into the half of the duplex Middelkoop lived in. As the older man hurriedly gathered up important papers, Fabi went back outside to check on the fire’s progress and to call 911 on his cellphone.
The fire ripped through Middelkoop’s home at 1826 Miller Rd. and the adjoining unit, at No. 1836.
“We’re very thankful to the neighbour. It was quick action,” said Middelkoop’s granddaughter, Angela Marko.
Middelkoop escaped unharmed and unshaken, she said.
“He got out alive and that’s all that matters,” she said.
Firefighters were able to save some family keepsakes, including Middelkoop’s wedding photo. Middelkoop was the lone occupant of the home.
Port Colborne firefighters were dispatched to the scene at 7:36 a.m. As firefighters battled the raging blaze, the smoke turned black as flames tore through the attic of the duplex.
“Both units are severely damaged,” said fire prevention officer Mike Bendia, who was unsure if the building is salvageable.
“The worst part was the construction of the building,” Bendia said. The conversion into a duplex was done, so there were hollows in which fire could easily spread, hindering firefighters’ ability to put out the blaze.
Twenty-nine firefighters were on scene at the blaze. The last left at 12:30 p.m. as an investigation was beginning.
Lack of water near the rural address between Concession 2 Road and Highway 3 made it necessary to call mutual aid from Fort Erie and Wainfleet.
Each provided tanker trucks to replenish two portable tanks erected at the scene.
The brick house was built in the 1860s as a one-room German schoolhouse, Marko said. It later became a single-family home, then was converted to a duplex.
Marko says it appears her grandfather’s large family will be able to provide him with support and needs for the moment. They were unable to salvage much from the home.
“We were able to get a couple family pictures, but we’ve not been able to go back in,” Marko said just past noon, as it appeared firefighters were beginning to start their investigation, including taking photographs of their own.
But that takes a back seat to the fact her grandfather is alive.
“You’ve got angels all around you. You just never know who they’re going to be,” she said of Fabi.
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