Nicholas Bostic Indiana pizza delivery driver hailed a hero after risking his own life and saving 5 children trapped inside a burning Lafayette home.
‘I had never done anything like this before, I wasn’t sure it was possible …’
A pizza delivery driver in Indiana has been hailed a ‘superhero’ after risking his own life and running into a burning building and pulling four children to safety before jumping out a window with a fifth.
Nicholas Bostic, 25, was driving through a neighborhood in Lafayette, IND. around midnight on July 11 when he saw the house engulfed in the raging fire.
He pulled up outside intending to call 911 only to realize he had left his cellphone at home, when he made a ‘split second, life or death,’ decision and ran inside with no regard for his own safety the man told NBC News.
Bostic said he could not see or hear anyone through the smoke and flames and was about to turn back when he saw the outline of a terrified teen at the top of the stairs, herding a bunch of children.
4 kids saved, and one more to go…
The selfless man had spotted Seionna Barrett, an 18-year-old who was babysitting her three younger siblings and one of their friends while her parents were out playing darts in a nearby bar.
Sprinting up the staircase, Bostic managed to lead Seionna and three children – Shaylee, 13; Kaleia, 1; and Shaylee’s friend Livian Knifley, 13 – through the encroaching blaze to safety out on the street.
Eyes and lungs already burning from the heat, it was at that moment Seionna said her six-year-old sister Kaylani, nicknamed ‘Baby K,’ was still trapped in the inferno.
Bostic without concern for his own life, then ran back inside and searched for the missing child, grabbed her and jumped out the broken window on the second floor while shielding her.
‘I ran inside and looked under beds and closets, but I couldn’t find her,’ Bostic said according to The Washington Post. ‘But when I got to the stairs, I heard some faint crying.’
‘I thought, ”I don’t want to die here,” the rescuer said, while realizing he was the only chance Baby K had of escaping alive.
Holding his breath, Bostic scooped up the crying child and felt his way back up the staircase, unable to see anything through the thick black smoke other than a small rectangle of light coming from the rooms upstairs.
Race against time as home was engulfed in blaze
Once back upstairs, the heroic pizza delivery man broke open a window, wrapped the girl around his left side and leapt into the air, tumbling two stories and breaking the girl’s fall with his own body.
Bostic was severely injured in the outrageous rescue and collapsed immediately afterwards, having suffered smoke inhalation, burns to several parts of his body and a major laceration on his arm after the window break and subsequent fall.
He was being taken to hospital as the children’s parents, David and Tiera Barrett, arrived at the scene after having received a call from Seionna that their house was on fire.
To date the cause of the blaze is not yet known and remains under investigation.
Four of the five children meanwhile escaped with no injuries whatsoever – with only Baby K sustaining minor trauma from the fall and treated by first responders at the scene.
‘We feel very blessed for what Nick did,’ David Barrett told The Washington Post.
‘I thought it was impossible …’
‘He’s a real hero, and my daughter’s a real hero for waking the kids up. I don’t like to think about what might have happened if Nick hadn’t shown up. I’m grateful beyond words.’
Meanwhile, Lafayette Police Department’s Lt. Randy Sherer said: ‘[Bostic’s] selflessness during this incident is inspiring. What he doesn’t understand is his actions weren’t ordinary, they were extraordinary.
‘He went down those stairs to save that little girl when he thought it was impossible just moments before… There’s only one way to define that: courageous and heroic.’
The community in Lafayette have since rallied around the Barrett family and Bostic, organizing several fundraising events as well as GoFundMe pages to help the family replace their belongings and pay for the man’s medical care.
Told Bostic according to the Washington Post: ‘Going to the hospital is expensive… I’m really grateful that everyone has been so kind and giving,’
As of Tuesday early afternoon, the fundraiser had raised $310,820
Bostic finally met the family in their entirety for the first time at a church service on Saturday, where David Barrett told his daughters’ rescuer he is now ‘officially part of the family’.
