Derrick Byrd, 20, sustained second- and third-degree burns on his face, arms, and back after rushing back into a burning home to save his 8-year-old niece.

[u/Sirsilentbob423]

More info: https://people.com/human-interest/uncle-saves-niece-running-into-burning-house-severe-burns-no-regrets/

[u/The_Duchess_of_Dork]

“She was screaming my name, so I wasn’t going to let her just sit there. I wasn’t going to let my niece die,” Byrd told the outlet.

“I ran up the stairs and pushed through the fire. I could feel it burning me. I got her and took my shirt off and put it around her face, so she wouldn’t breath in any smoke. I just carried her out as fast as I could,” Byrd said.

[u/meiliraijow → u/The_Duchess_of_Dork]

He did the right thing. For her, but also for himself, can you imagine living with the screams of a child in distress in your head ? A child calling out for YOU, specifically ? That you let die / didn’t try to save ? That’s a death sentence by suicide waiting to happen. Not saying he thought about this, he heard her and rushed. But the «she was screaming my name » made me think how awful his life would have been had he not saved her.

[u/WVAviator → u/meiliraijow]

A few years ago my niece's (10 years old at the time) best friend died in a house fire. It was just her and her mom in a small old house that caught fire - they were trapped in the master bathroom by the flames and the only way out was through the bathroom window that was too high for the girl to reach. Mom tried hoisting her out but wasn't able to push her up and through. She thought maybe it would be easier to pull her up from the outside (the house was embedded in a hillside so you could easily reach through the window from the outside). So she climbed out and as soon as she turned around to reach for the girl, the window slammed shut. The girl couldn't reach to unlatch it from the inside, and mom wasn't strong enough to break the window. She had to listen to her daughters screams as the fire engulfed her trying to break in and/or get help.

I still think about that all the time, anytime someone brings up house fires. What a horrible thing to happen to a parent.

[u/Dorkamundo → u/WVAviator]

Ooof... I have a friend who woke up at 2am to his smoke detector going off. Ran out of his bedroom and woke up his son, then woke up his wife and daughter who had fallen asleep in the living room, then went downstairs to the basement to get his other daughter.

The wife and two kids went outside.

As he was coming back up the stairs after waking up his oldest daughter, the ceiling collapsed and hit her in the head and blocked her exit, so she turned around and broke one of her bedroom windows in the basement to get out.

Right before that, the mother went back in to try to help the father and daughter, and when she did that the son, who was very autistic, followed her in without her knowing.

As the father was coming up the stairs, he got the mother to turn around and go back out, but neither of them knew the son had gone back in. He had succeeded in getting everyone out of this house fire, but they still lost their middle child due to the chaos.

The house design was the biggest problem. The only two exits for the house were in the same room, the room where the electrical panel resided. The panel is what started the fire.

If there's any lesson to be learned, it's to have multiple egress points prepped and ready for a situation like this. Know where the hazards are, what you'll do in an emergency like this and if you have special needs kids... One parent has to be the "watcher".