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Saturday, Jul. 26, 2008

'We did our best' to save boys, firefighter says

The call came in at 3:59 a.m.

Macon-Bibb County firefighters Matt Couey and Daniel Wimberly had just lain down in bed after responding to a medical emergency.

A house was burning at 417 Moseley Ave., and dispatchers said it was possible people were trapped inside.

Couey and Wimberly rushed to their fire rescue truck and started driving to the fire. They were the first to arrive. Moments later they were inside, risking their lives in hopes of saving two young boys trapped there. The fire had been ignited by gasoline poured on the front porch of their mother's home.

Three people are charged with arson and murder after police say they intentionally set the July 14 fire that killed 2-year-old Hezekiah Harris and his brother, 4-year-old Tydarious Harris.

"If they had any kind of a chance, we were going to give it to them," Couey said of the boys.

In the nearly two weeks since the fire, fellow firefighters have offered comfort and support to Couey and Wimberly for their bravery, but both men have downplayed their actions.

"We did what any of our co-workers would have done," Wimberly said.

FEELING AROUND IN THE DARK

Couey, 21, and Wimberly, 24, said they could see the smoke as they neared the Unionville neighborhood where flames were devouring the wooden house located on the corner of Moseley and Pansy avenues, about four blocks west of Pio Nono Avenue.

"We turned onto Pansy and we saw the glow and the fire," Wimberly said.

When the truck pulled up to the house, they noticed a crowd of people in the yard.

As soon as he stepped from the truck, Couey said the boys' mother started pulling him up toward the house, telling him that her two sons were still inside. Three adults and three other children had escaped the flames

The mother pointed to the boys' bedroom window.

Couey said he could see a pipe sticking out from the window where people had tried to pry it open to rescue the boys. Although the window was within reach, he said he couldn't quite get up to it.

With much of the house engulfed in flames, Couey grabbed a large trash can from beside a fence and positioned it underneath the window. As soon as a fire hose was ready behind him, he jumped on top of the can and worked to pry open the window.

"It finally popped open," he said.

Couey climbed through the window into the smoke-filled room, with Wimberly close behind him. The entire house was now on fire except for the boys' bedroom.

Fire spread quickly to two walls of the room, and flames eating away at the attic emitted a glow through the ceiling.

But the walls were still intact.

"You couldn't see anything," Wimberly recalled.

Searching the room with no visibility, Couey kept a hand on a wall, and Wimberly kept hold of one of Couey's boots to ensure that neither firefighter got disoriented.

Using only their sense of touch, the firefighters felt around as they passed two beds, one positioned in front of each of the two windows in the room. Toys and clothes littered the floor, making it hard to distinguish what the firefighters were feeling.

They returned to the first bed, the one nearest the window they had entered through.

Couey bumped into something at the foot of the bed. It was covered in a blanket.

"I thought it was a baby doll at first," he said. "But I brought it up to my mask and I shined the light, and I saw his face."

The firefighters had found 2-year-old Hezekiah.

Couey handed the boy to Wimberly, who handed the toddler out the window to Sgt. Keith Hardy, the firefighters' supervisor.

Just as the boy was carried to safety, fire entered the room where the firefighters were searching. Wimberly took the fire hose and started dousing the flames while both men continued to search for 4-year-old Tydarious.

Couey said he lifted the bed and discovered the second boy lying just a little underneath it. He handed the boy out to Hardy, who was straddling the window.

The firefighters remained inside briefly, fighting the fire until the ceiling started falling in on them and both started running out of air.

A SENSE OF DUTY

When Couey and Wimberly rescued the boys, both were motionless and unresponsive.

Emergency medical personnel tried to revive them, but Hezekiah died at 4:33 a.m. Tydarious died 10 minutes later.

The firefighters said they didn't know the boys' fate until after the fire was extinguished.

They were sitting beside a fire truck when other firefighters told them.

"It would have been great if they had made it," Wimberly said. "They didn't deserve to go.

"It wasn't their fault."

The boys died of smoke inhalation, authorities said.

If faced with the same scenario, both firefighters said they wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing again if there was any chance someone could make it out safely.

Couey said adrenaline took over on the night of the fire, and since then he has slowly remembered details of what happened.

"We were in the right place at the right time - but it was the wrong time," he said. "We gave them every chance we could.

"Anybody on the job would have done it," Couey said. "We did what we had to do."

Wimberly said the events of the night went by so quickly that he pushed worry to the back of his mind.

"We did exactly what I thought we should have done," he said. "We did it as quickly as we could, and we did our best."

In the days following the fire, Macon-Bibb County Fire Chief Marvin Riggins has expressed pride in the firefighters' heroism and courage, especially at such a young age.

Both of the men are relatively new to firefighting.

Wimberly said he always wanted to have a career he could be proud of, and he viewed firefighting as a noble calling when he was assigned to his first station in April 2007.

Couey said he was following in his firefighter uncle's footsteps when he started on the line in September 2007.

"I'm excited to know they are on our team, and they have the courage and the commitment to put their lives on the line," Riggins said. "It makes my heart feel good.

"I'm grateful for them."

To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398