Mike
Hughes was a captain with the Wenatchee Fire Department, Washington, 17 years
ago when he was part of a team that responded to an emergency involving a house
fire.
When
arrived on scene, he discovered a 9-month-old baby lying in her crib. Thinking
fast, he snatched her up and got her to safety by handing her off to another
fireman outside the house.
Almost
two decades later, he got an extremely pleasant surprise when he received a
message from a high-school senior. As it turned out, the student had a
fantastic proposition for him.
Mike
Hughes feared the worst when he was part of a firefighting team that got an
emergency call to respond to a house fire. Not only was the house in a very bad
way when he and his partner arrived, but the call over the radio also stated a
belief that someone was in the house.
“Our
engine pulled up and the whole interior part of the house was burning heavily,”
Hughes told US-based ABC News. “My partner and I went in and I got a call on
the radio that they suspected somebody was in the house.”
With
the knowledge that there might well be casualties, Hughes and his partner
stormed the flames. Hughes himself expected to find someone, and so was taken
aback when he discovered a 9-month-old lying in her crib. That baby was none
other than Dawnielle Davison.
“I
went straight to the place in the house that I thought I’d find somebody,”
Hughes continued. “The door to the bedroom was partially open and she was in
her crib just squirming so I snatched her up and got her to the front door and
handed her off to the first firefighter who was there.”
For
Hughes, the outcome of the event was a luxury he’s not used to being afforded
in his profession. No one was hurt during the blaze and the recovery of
Dawnielle was an obvious plus.
In
fact, the operation stuck in his mind so much that Hughes searched online
several years later to see what had come of the baby he rescued from the fire.
He found Dawnielle, then in middle-school, on Facebook.
“I
sent her a note that said, ‘I think i pulled you out of a fire when you were a
baby,’” Hughes said. “And she gave me a test…she wrote back, ‘Oh yeah, what was
my mom doing?’”
“I
replied, ‘Well she was at work and your dad was there.”
Naturally,
Hughes was completely right in his recollection. This forged a connection
between the pair, with Hughes often attending her track events and crossing
paths with her at the local store from time to time.
Surprise
invitation
And
yet, even the now-retired firefighter couldn’t have anticipated being offered
an invitation to Davison’s high school graduation.
“She
sent me an invitation so I thought, ‘By golly, I’m going,’” he said. “It meant
an awful lot to me. I was really happy.”
Who’d
have thought that 17 years after pulling a baby from a burning building, Mike
Hughes would be watching the very same girl walk across a stage on the way to
collecting her high school diploma? It’s certainly a story that warms the
heart!
You can watch the video below for more on this incredible story:
Firefighters everywhere, we take our hats off to you … you guys are true
heroes! Hit the like button if you agree.
What a great story about a bond that stood the test of time. If you, too,
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