A seven-year-old boy and an off-duty firefighter saved two people from a house fire Thursday in Delaware.
The fire started shortly after 1:00 p.m. Thursday in Glasgow, Delaware, in the Caravel Hunt neighborhood, the Newark Post reported.
The seven-year-old quickly sprang into action, dialing 911 and saving a sibling from a second-floor bedroom. He also tried to rescue his 91-year-old grandmother but could not do so alone.
That is when off-duty firefighter Larry DuHadaway took over.
DuHadaway, a career firefighter/paramedic in Howard County, Maryland, and a former deputy fire chief with the Christiana Fire Company, was in Glasgow when the fire started, the Delaware News Journal reported.
He saw two little boys in the driveway and “a lot of smoke coming from the back of the house.” He ran to check where the fire was coming from and saw the home’s enclosed porch was “fully engulfed” in flames.
DuHadaway entered the burning house without protective gear or an oxygen tank, but he pulled the 91-year-old grandmother to safety anyway.
“I got down on the ground, and I could see a shoe, probably about 10 to 15 feet in,” DuHadaway said. “And then I could make out a leg, so I just pulled my sweatshirt over my nose and went in.”
Once DuHadaway carried the woman outside, police and paramedics rendered first aid. She was then taken to the Jefferson University Hospital Burn Center in Philadelphia, where she is being treated for severe burns.
The fire was deemed accidental and was the result of a malfunction in a pellet stove on an enclosed porch.
This is not the first time DuHadaway has sprung into action while off-duty. In 2018, he witnessed a terrible accident on Route 1 where he performed “triage” to help those in the accident. Despite his efforts, five people died in the crash.
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