Update: The 25-year-old hero who saved five people from a burning home in Indiana on July 11 is getting a hero's reception on GoFundMe. A fundraiser started for Nick Bostic by his cousin, who explained Bostic suffered "serious injuries and will need help during his recovery," has raised about $470,000 as of this writing. "This kid is the real deal," his cousin wrote of the pizza delivery man. Fox News reports Bostic sustained burns and blisters on his arm and legs after running into the house a second time to rescue a 6-year-old who remained inside. A separate Facebook fundraiser for Bostic has pulled in another $40,000. Our original story from July 15 follows:
A driver who spotted flames shooting out of a house in Indiana shortly after midnight on Monday morning didn’t call 911. He couldn’t. As Nick Bostic tells journalist Dave Bangert, he wasn't carrying his phone. But "I was at the right place, the right time, and, I guess, the right person." Now hailed a hero, the 25-year-old of Lafayette "slammed on the brakes, pulled in the driveway, and ran into the house from the back," he tells WXIN. Inside, he found an 18-year-old and her three young siblings, whom he helped outside to safety. Then he learned another child was missing. "The heat was excruciating," Bostic says. But he went back inside anyway.
Desperately searching the second floor, "I accepted I was going to probably die, right there," he tells Bangert. "But it was a weird calm." Then he heard the faint sound of cries from the first floor, which he followed until locating the 6-year-old girl. With smoke obscuring an exit on that level, "I grabbed her and held her snug and I ran up those stairs like a running back for the Colts," he tells WXIN. His aim was a second-floor window, which he jumped out of, still cradling the youngster. A police officer's body camera captured Bostic emerging from a wall of flames with the child in his arms. "That's everybody," he tells the officer, breathlessly, before sitting down on a sidewalk and calling for oxygen.
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"Please tell me that baby's OK," he says in this clip from the footage, receiving an affirmative. All five victims were uninjured. "You did good, dude," a voice says. At a hospital, Bostic, who suffered severe smoke inhalation, was placed on a ventilator, Bangert writes. He was also treated for burns and a bad cut to his arm apparently suffered during his jump out the window. But he feels blessed. "Waking up every morning I have something to remind me of why I'm here, still alive. Why God keeps me here," he tells WLFI. "He used me like his instrument." A Facebook fundraiser has raised more than $15,000 for the pizza restaurant employee as of this writing. (More uplifting news stories.)
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