As news spreads ofNick Bostic’s brave reaction to a house fire, more details are coming to light.
The Indiana man entered a burning home not once but twice to rescue five children, ages 1 to 18, in in Lafayette on July 11. As the herculean effort neared a triumphant end, Bostic grabbed the last child on his second entry, smashed a window and leapt two stories to the ground with the child in his arms. The harrowing moments have since captured the nation’s attention.
“If opportunity came again and I had to do it, I would do it,” Bostic, 25, toldABC News. “I knew what I was risking. I knew the next second it could be my life. But every second counted.”
The rescue began after Bostic left home to get gas for his vehicle that night. With his cell phone left behind, Bostic had no chance to call 911 when he saw the two-story house in flames shortly after midnight and prior to first responders' arrival.
“He immediately stopped in the roadway, threw his car in reverse, turned around and pulled into the driveway,” Lafayette police said in a statement. “He knew he had to act.”
Darting to the back of the home and finding an unlocked door, “he began yelling inside, attempting to alert the occupants that the house was on fire,” police said. “He didn’t receive an answer and contemplated the possibility that everyone had already evacuated.”
Nick Bostic, center, and girlfriend Kara Lewis, left, with the Barrett family, whose children he saved from a house fire.Facebook
“Not taking the chance that someone could still be inside, he decided to go in,” they added.
Bostic told ABC News that he pushed through the heat and smoke to race up the stairs, where he encountered four of the children: a 1-year-old, two 13-year-olds and an 18-year-old. He then guided them down the stairs and outside.
“I asked them if anybody was left in there — and that’s when they told me that the 6-year-old was,” he said.
“Without hesitation,” according to police, “he ran back into the burning house. Not knowing where the child was, he went to the last place where he located the other children — the upstairs.”
“He frantically searched the rooms, even looking under the beds, but it was to no avail — he could not find the child,” police said. “He started down the stairs but was immediately turned back.”
“He described looking down the stairwell into a ‘black lagoon’ of smoke and thought it was impossible to go that way,” they continued. “He moved to a window to exit the house when he heard a child’s cry coming from downstairs.”
Bostic described for police what they portrayed as his “inner dialogue”: “He knew he was there to get that child out, and even though the fire and smoke downstairs frightened him, he would not quit,” police said in their statement.
Bostic “wrapped his shirt around his mouth and nose and plunged into the blackness,” police said. “He described it as so black that he couldn’t see anything in font of him, and the heat from the fire made it seem as if he was walking into an oven. Nicholas crawled on the ground, feeling in front of him with his hands, and used the child’s cries to help him locate her in the darkness.”
Police said Bostic used his bare hand to punch open a window upstairs, but in his haste to make an exit, “the child’s leg became entangled in the pull cord to the binds. Nicholas recognized that he was rushing and calmed himself down. He untangled the string and jumped from the window, ensuring he landed on the side where he was not holding the child.”
Police said the girl suffered only a minor cut to her foot.
“The last thing I could do was waste a second panicking,” Barrett explained to ABC News.
In the days since Bostic stepped up, aGoFundMe pagehas been collecting donations to help the Barrett family recover. Meanwhile, aseparate fundraising campaign was launched on Facebookto help “Our Hero Nick,” who was briefly hospitalized to recover from his own injuries. Another campaign benefitting Bostic raised pledges exceeding $350,000 onGoFundMe.
A statement from police said Bostic has “impressed many with his courage, tenacity, and steadfast calmness.”
Bostic has remained humble as he receives recognition, telling ABC News, “I’m glad I was there at the right time, the right place.”
source: people.com
