‘Hero’ firefighter rescues toddler from burning building with help from city workers

EVERETT, Mass. (WBZ) - Two Department of Public Works employees in Massachusetts are being called heroes for rushing into a burning building after they saw smoke on Wednesday.

The two men then alerted a firefighter to a young girl who was trapped inside.

Everett firefighters faced grim conditions when they arrived at the triple-decker on Hancock Street, but they weren't the first to the scene.

The two on-the-job Everett Department of Public Works employees saw the smoke and didn't hesitate.

"I told him, 'Stop the truck.' He stopped the truck and we both ran out, ran into the building, kicked in the doors and dragged everyone out," Jesse Winocour, one of the Everett city workers, said.

But Winocour, along with fellow Department of Works employee Jason Papa, couldn't get to the third floor where they learned a toddler girl was trapped.

"We couldn't make it all the way in. Too much smoke, too much fire. We tried," Winocour described.

"Tried to go up further to the point that I couldn't breathe. My eyes were burning," Papa added.

As the two were making their way out, an Everett firefighter was on his way up to the third floor.

At one point, the firefighter, identified by Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria as 26-year department veteran Captain Jay Lewis, called a mayday because conditions were so hazardous.

The firefighter finally emerged with the unconscious girl. He was also in distress.

"She was unconscious, so she was apparently wasn't breathing," neighbor Connie Garcia said. "I was so scared to see her. He couldn't do anything else. He just dropped his body to the floor."

It was an emotional scene for the two men who were in the right place at the right time.

"I seen the little girl come out like that in his arms, just hanging there," Papa recounted. "I got six kids of my own."

The city workers are also both being called heroes for helping the building's residents.

More than a dozen have been displaced.

"Thank Christ he did because otherwise, it would be a tragedy," Sue Decarney, one of the displace residents, said.

This was more than a day's work, but Winocour and Papa won't take the credit.

"He went up there and saved her. He's the hero. The fireman saved the little girl. He's the hero," Winocour emphasized.

First responders were able to revive the girl, who was taken to the hospital, along with the firefighter, with non-life-threatening injuries.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.