A Lafayette, Indiana man is being recognized as a hero after running into a blazing house fire to save five people.
According to the HuffPost, a 25-year-old pizza delivery named Nick Bostic was driving home around 12:30am when he saw flames coming from the balcony of a house.
Being unable to call 911, Bostic immediately stopped his car and ran up to the house to make sure no one was inside.
Photo: Twitter/@joesampaulSpeaking with Fox News, Bostic explained: “I saw the fire on the balcony so I slammed on the brakes, pulled in the driveway, and ran into the house from the back. I was hollering ‘Is there anybody in there?'”
According to a police press release, once inside the house, Bostic found entered four people ranging in age from one to 18 that had been upstairs and unaware of the fire. He got them all to safety but was then informed there was someone missing who was still in the house: a 6-year-old girl.
Despite the ever-growing fire, Nick ran back into the house to search for the child. As the press release explains, he started by searching upstairs for the child where the other kids had been, looking under beds and anywhere he could think. After a few minutes had passed, he heard a faint crying coming from downstairs.
The downstairs had filled with thick smoke and Bostic recalled debating for a moment if he should attempt such a suicide-mission as running back into the fire but he quickly pushed his hesitations away and went in search of the young child. In the press release, Bostic described the downstairs as like beign in an oven and he had to blindly crawl and follow the cries to find the girl.
Photo: Twitter/@joesampaul “The smoke just came out of nowhere. It was pitch black, pitch black. The heat was excruciating,” Bostic told Fox News.
Once he had the child secured in his arms, Bostic began trying to search for an exit, but he couldn’t find the door. Instead, he found the stairs and ran up them as fast as he could. Once upstairs, he found a window and used his fist to punch it open. With the 6-year-old girl clutched to his chest, Bostic jumped from the second-story window and ran the child to safety.
Police body cam footage shows the moment he emerged from the fire with the girl, and you can check it out in the tweet below:
As the police explained in the press release, when first responders arrived at the scene, the house was too engulfed in flames for anyone to enter. They knew there was a chance that a 6-year-old was trapped inside, but they couldn’t safely get in to rescue her. However, 6 minutes after EMS arrived on the scene and determined the residence unsafe to enter, Bostic jumped from the window with the child in his arms!
All five members of the family were mostly uninjured, but Bostic sustained serious injuries from a deep gash on his arm and severe smoke inhalation.
As you can see in the tweet below, Bostic had to be treated with a tourniquet to stop his immediate bleeding, before being airlifted to a hospital.
Bostic’s girlfriend, Kara Lewis, shared on Facebook that he had to be intubated to help his lungs from the smoke inhalation and he received stitches and treatment for his cuts and lacerations.
Thankfully, after just three days in the hospital, Nick was released and stable to go home.
He even got to reunite with the family he rescued, and he shared a photo of it on social media! Check it out below:
Bostic’s friends and family have started two fundraisers to raise money to cover his hospital bills, one on GoFundMe and one on Facebook. Collectively, they’ve raised over $120,000 for him!
On August 2, 2022, Bostic will also be honored at an Aviators game and all proceeds from the game’s tickets will go toward his GoFundMe.
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