‘THEY’RE HEROES’: Construction workers use trampoline to save boy from fire
By Katrina Markel
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GLENWOOD, Iowa (KMTV) — Construction workers are being hailed as heroes. They were driving by a house when they noticed it was on fire. Without thinking, they entered, helped save a family and even used a trampoline to get a teenage boy out of the top floor window.
John Lewis is the general manager for Leick Construction. He was the first person in the door.
Katrina: “So, what happened, what did you see when you were driving?”
John: “I stopped there at the stop sign, I looked to my right for traffic and I seen smoke coming out of the front porch window.”
Lewis, along with colleagues Gabe Record and Damian Pond, rushed inside and helped a mother, grandmother and 4-year-old girl escape. Then, they experienced something that seemed like an explosion.
“But when it exploded, it blew flames out toward the back of Gabe and burned him on his back and on his arm. And got Damian on the side of the face,” said Lewis.
Next door, mechanic John Vandevoorde came out to help and saw the boy in the second story window.
“Once I saw him, I knew what was happening and he was in trouble. Big trouble,” Vandevoorde said.
The men couldn’t reach the boy upstairs.
“I looked over and seen a trampoline, so I grabbed the trampoline, pulled it out of the ground and started dragging it to the window,” said Lewis.
The young man couldn’t see through the smoke and, with flames spreading Lewis, and the others shouted for the boy to jump.
“He hit the trampoline and I caught him and got him out over here to the stop sign,” Lewis said.
The Leick Construction employees were treated for burns and are expected to recover.
“I mean, they’re heroes. This could have been a totally different outcome if they wouldn’t have stepped up and done what they did,” said Glenwood Fire Chief Matt Gray.
The family is healthy, but now without a home. One family member, Ben McGhee, told me he feels “really defeated” and is worried about finding housing.
Chief Gray says the three employees of Leick Construction will be honored at a later date.
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