Parents speak out after hero pizza guy Nick Bostic rescues their 4 kids and a friend from a blazing house — a GoFundMe campaign for the Indiana man, injured while saving the two children and three teens last week, has raised more than half a million dollars.
OVER $.5 MILLION RAISED FOR PIZZA DELIVERY MAN WHO SAVED 5 FROM BURNING HOUSE
Nicholas Bostic, a 25-year-old pizza delivery driver from Lafayette, Indiana, was hailed as a hero after he rescued five minors from a blazing building earlier this month. Bostic noticed a house on fire while driving around at night and risked his life — even jumping out of a window with a six-year-old in his arms — to save the occupants. Bostic had to be flown to nearby Indianapolis for treatment of severe smoke inhalation and a large gash on his right arm. He also suffered cuts, burns and blisters and was treated for multiple days in hospital. — GlobalNews.ca
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Bostic’s cousin, Richard Stair, created a GoFundMe page to raise funds for the hero pizza delivery man’s hospital bills, with an initial goal of US$100,000.
As of publishing time, the page had garnered at least $560,000 in donations. “This kid is the real deal,” Stair wrote on the page. “Sadly, he has some serious injuries and will need help during his recovery.”
An update posted on the campaign’s page by Stair on July 16 reads that Bostic is feeling better after the ordeal and is in good spirits. “The amount of support and donations is beyond anything we could have ever hoped for,” Stair wrote.
In a press release from the Lafayette Police Department, authorities recounted how Bostic immediately leapt into action when he noticed the burning house. Bostic had no phone on him and knew time was of the essence if anyone was trapped in the inferno. He made his way to the back door and called out to its occupants, with no reply.
He “contemplated the possibility that everyone had already evacuated,” the police statement reads. “Not taking the chance that someone could still be inside, he decided to go in.”
Upstairs, Bostic found a one-year-old baby and three teenagers, aged 13 to 18, who had been roused by his yells.
“For a minute I didn’t understand it, but my sister ran upstairs with the baby in her hands and yelling at us to get up because there’s a fire,” 13-year-old Shaylee Barrett told the Purdue Exponent. “And for a minute I froze and I laid there because I was confused. That’s when we went downstairs and Nick was downstairs helping us.”
Bostic helped the four youths escape but once they were outside he learned that there was still a six-year-old trapped inside.
“Without hesitation, he ran back into the burning house,” police said.
Bostic described the ground floor of the house as being a “black lagoon” of smoke, according to police, and had to crawl on the floor, feeling with his hands to get around the house.
He told police he had an “inner dialogue” with himself about whether getting the last child out was possible but was determined not to quit, though the house felt like “walking into an oven.”
Bostic heard the cries of a child in the blackness and used her voice to guide him. Once he had her, though, he wasn’t able to locate the backdoor in the smoke-filled room.
He ran back up the stairs where the smoke wasn’t as thick and “broke open a window by punching it with his bare hand,” police wrote.
Bostic jumped out of the second-storey window carrying the six-year-old, and landed on his side to cushion their fall.
“The 6-year-old child was miraculously mostly uninjured,” the press release reads.
Source: GlobalNews.ca
BARRETT FAMILY SAY THEY HAVE PICKED UP A NEW FAMILY MEMBER
David and Tiera Barrett were wrapping up a date night when David received a call from his 18-year-old daughter Seionna, who was babysitting her three siblings, ages 1, 6 and 13, along with a 13-year-old friend of her sibling. Seionna told her dad that their home was on fire, and she and the four children were inside.
"We dropped everything we were doing and took off running," David said.
Seionna said she first saw the fire in their living room, ran upstairs yelling and grabbed her baby sister.
"We started running down the stairs, and that's when we saw Nick, and we couldn't find Kaylani," Seionna said, holding back tears.
Bostic helped them out the door before desperately searching the smoke-filled house for Kaylani, whom the family affectionately calls "Baby K."
"I took a deep breath, and I ran [downstairs] and I grabbed Kaylani. I used my ears to help find her," Bostic said.
Because of the dense smoke, he said his only option was to exit through a second-floor window. Bostic punched out the glass and jumped to safety with the 6-year-old girl in his arms. He suffered multiple injuries but the girl only suffered a minor cut to her foot.
Body camera video captured the aftermath of the jump as Bostic handed Kaylani to police and collapsed on the pavement. While receiving treatment, the video shows Bostic asking, "Is the baby OK? Please tell me the baby's OK," before someone off camera assured him the child was fine.
"I remember pulling up to the house and running up and all Seionna could say was, 'I can't find Kaylani,'" David Barrett said. "Then the officers said, 'She's in the ambulance,' and then they told me about Nick and what he had done. I started crying more. One of the most awful feelings to have is that I wasn't there. Kaylani said, 'Daddy I was looking for you.'"
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation. The family lost almost everything.
"On our wall, in our living room, it was completely burnt down. The only thing that was left was [a sign that read] 'love,' and that's all I feel from everyone," David said.
But the family said they did pick up a new family member. "God uses the most unlikely characters. He sent an angel," David said.
Bostic, who suffered smoke inhalation in addition to his arm injury and other wounds, was airlifted to an Indianapolis hospital and discharged two days later. He said he's not a hero and just did what he would have wanted someone to do for him and his family if their home was on fire.
"It was all worth it. I kept reminding myself what a small sacrifice. This temporary pain ... it's so worth it," he told WLFI-TV.
A GoFundMe page has also been set up for the Barrett family, who lost almost everything in the blaze.
Source: abc7.com
