SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A man and his two-year-old grandson remain in the hospital after a fire ripped through their home on Syracuse's west side Monday night.
Dispatchers say a fire broke out at 713 Marcellus Street, near South Geddes Street, at about 9:40 Monday night; within ten minutes of arrival, crews rescued the two people who were trapped inside.
40-year-old Dallas Holmes was one of the folks rescued by fire crews, and is currently in University Hospital in serious condition. His grandson, two-year-old Juel Boatwright, who was also rescued by fire crews, is currently in University Hospital in critical condition.
Holmes' two other grandchildren, 11-month old Shawaun Boatwright and 5-year-old Troy Boatwright, were rescued by a man living upstairs. 28-year-old Michael Stevens-Cosgrove was upstairs when the fire started, and was able to get himself and the two children out. He is not related to the Boatwrights or the Holmes'.
"Adrenaline started pumping, and I had to get those kids out of there -- that was that, there was no other choice," says Cosgrove.
He broke a window and pulled one child out; a neighbor was able to get to another, just before the fire started roaring.
"That was my biggest concern was those kids -- I heard them screaming from upstairs; when I finally got to them I was just happy to get to them," Cosgrove says.
There was still a grandfather and his two-year-old grandson trapped inside, and a wall of fire had now spread through much of the house; when fire crews got there they actually busted out a back window and lifted one of the guys and threw him in to go rescue those two.
"These guys are just amazing, just amazing ⦠I don't think he was in there ten seconds, and found the adult male," says Syracuse District Fire Chief Mark McLeese.
Syracuse Fire First Deputy Chief Ed Kurtz says "from the time we arrived, with flames blowing out the front, the first victim was recorded being brought out in four minutes."
The two-year-old was found by another firefighter and brought outside just a couple of minutes later.
"Probably in the course of a year we don't have a lot of rescues like this, where we're dragging unconscious people out of a fully engulfed house," says McLeese.
For Cosgrove, it's the first and likely the last time he'll do it, but he downplays his part of the rescue.
"Anybody would have done it, anybody presented with the choice would have done it, same thing," he says.
Investigators believe the fire started on the first floor of the home in the front bedroom. They are trying to determine what started it.
Four firefighters suffered minor injuries; and were treated at the scene and did not need to be hospitalized.
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Republished with permission of WSYR-TV.
