Indiana man rescues 5 from burning house

Nicholas Bostic, 25, was on his way home in Lafayette, Ind., at about 12:30 a.m. on July 11 when he passed a house on fire, Police Lt. Randy Sherer said. He arrived at the house before firefighters and ran in shouting, asking if anyone was inside. He found an 18-year-old and her three siblings, ages 1, 6, and 13, as well as a 13-year-old friend. The children’s parents weren’t home. He got them all out safely and was treated at the hospital for severe smoke inhalation and a cut on his arm. Police are still investigating the cause of the fire.

How did he get them out? Bostic didn’t have his phone to call 911, so he stopped his car and ran through the back door into smoke and flames where he found four of them upstairs. Once they were outside, they told him the 6-year-old girl was still in the house. He told Fox News that the second time he went in, the house was black with smoke and almost unbearably hot, but he heard the girl whimpering and kept going. He found her downstairs. Then he ran upstairs and punched through an upstairs window, jumped through it, and rushed her to the firefighters outside. 

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, listen to Kim Henderson’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast on another act of heroism during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.