BOSTON (WHDH) - An off-duty Boston firefighter is being hailed as a hero after snapping into action when his own home caught fire, catching an infant from a second floor window in the process.
Two people were taken to the hospital, and seven were displaced after a two-alarm fire at a multi-family home in Hyde Park Sunday morning.
Reports of the fire on Norton Street came in at around 7 a.m., where an off-duty firefighter lived in the front of the building with his wife and child.
Officials told 7NEWS he quickly ran to the back unit of the two-family home to help his neighbors. There, he soon found a mother with her infant child trying to escape.
“He saw a woman in the second floor window holding a baby, and she leaned out the window and dropped the baby to him,” said Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Burke. “Then she jumped herself.”
Burke said the infant is back with family, while the mother and father were both taken to the hospital. All three are expected to be OK.
One firefighter was reportedly hurt and treated at the scene, but did not need to be hospitalized after what witnesses called a fast-moving fire.
“I stuck my head out the back door and looked over… and it was just a wall of flames,” neighbor Jim MacDonald said.
Despite the fire moving quickly, Boston Firefighters Union President Sam Dillon said things could have been worse had it not been for the actions of the firefighter who lived there.
“These are situation that we respond to – we don’t expect to find them in our own home, but when confronted with that, whether it was his own home or someone else’s, he did what Boston firefighters are trained to do,” Dillon said. “We’re a family as a profession, so we’re proud of him for what he did here this morning, and most importantly, we’re thankful that he and his family are ok.”
Damage to the home is estimated to be nearly $500,000. Investigators are currently investigating the fire’s cause.
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