DETROIT (WWJ) — A pair of Detroit firefighters were honored Monday on National First Responders Day for saving the life of a young boy who was trapped in a house fire on the city’s northeast side last winter.
Lt. David Howard and his partner Travis Winter received the Detroit Fire Department’s Medal of Valor for saving the boy, who suffered severe burns to the left side of his face and his back.
It all unfolded on a frosty January morning when Jasmine Nesbitt dropped off her then-1-year-old son, Jayveon, at their home where they lived with another family so he could take a nap while she went to run some errands.
While she was out, her friend called to tell her the house had caught on fire and while she had gotten the other children out, she couldn’t find Jayveon. She described it as “a horrible sight” as she saw smoke and flames coming out of their home when she got back.
One of the adults told firefighters there was a baby inside and Howard and Winter rushed into action.
“Oh man, it was one of those days you always think about, you train for it, your adrenaline was pumping. You couldn’t even tell it was hot because you knew what was in there,” Howard told WWJ Newsradio 950’s Tim Pamplin at Monday’s ceremony.
“It was hot, we felt the kid, his heart beating heavy. That's how I found him, he was right up against the doorway. My hand touched his chest and I felt his heartbeat, grabbed him and brought him out,” Howard said, noting he “scooped him up like a football” and ran out of the house.
Winter explained there was “zero visibility” inside the house as they were searching for the boy. Winter said he sprayed water on Howard as he crawled on the floor searching for Jayveon.
The firefighters gathered with Jayveon and his mother Monday at Ladder 18, where she thanked them for saving her boy. Meeting him for the first time since their encounter, Howard and Winter gifted the toddler with a firefighter’s hat and a teddy bear.
“I'm just so thankful that they saved my baby,” she told Pamplin through tears.
Howard and Winter will also be honored at the Detroit Public Safety Foundation’s Above & Beyond Awards, to be held Nov. 13 at Ford Field.
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