The man was later identified as Nicholas Bostic, 25, a local pizza delivery man who is now being hailed as a hero for rescuing two children and three teenagers from the burning home. Bostic was seriously injured during the rescue and had to be taken to nearby Indianapolis to be treated for severe smoke inhalation and a large gash to his right hand, according to a news release from the Lafayette Police Department. A few days after his ordeal, Bostic had recovered enough to tell his story to the police.
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Story continues below ad On the evening of July 11, Bostic was driving in Lafayette when he passed a house on fire around 12:30 am. He didn’t have a phone to call 911 and knew time was of the essence if someone was trapped inside. Police say he threw his car into reverse and immediately headed home, not wanting to waste time finding someone to call for help. Bostic was able to enter the burning home through the back door and told the occupants not to answer.
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“He considered the possibility that everyone had already evacuated,” the police statement said. “Not taking the chance that someone might still be inside, he decided to go inside.” Upstairs, Bostic found a one-year-old baby and three teenagers, ages 13 to 18, roused by his yelling. “For a minute I didn’t realize it, but my sister ran over with the baby in her arms and she was yelling for us to get up because it’s on fire,” 13-year-old Shaylee Barrett told the Purdue Exponent. “And for a minute I froze and laid there because I was confused. That’s when we went downstairs and Nick was downstairs helping us.” Story continues below ad
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Bostic helped the four youths escape, but once they got outside he learned there was another six-year-old trapped inside. Trending Stories
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“Without hesitation, he ran back into the burning house,” police said. Bostic described the ground floor of the house as a “black lagoon” of smoke, according to police, and he had to crawl on the floor, feeling his way around the house. He told police he had an “internal dialogue” with himself about whether it was possible to get the last child out, but was determined not to give up, even though the house felt like “I was walking into an oven”.
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In an interview with Dave Bangert published on the reporter’s Substack, Bostic said, “I don’t know how to explain it, but it was like I accepted that I was probably going to die, right there, that night.” “But it was a strange calm. You just have to work as fast as you can,” he added. Bostic heard the cries of a child in the blackness and used her voice to guide him. Once he got it, however, he couldn’t locate the back door in the smoke-filled room. Story continues below ad
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He ran up the stairs where the smoke was less dense and “knocked open a window with his bare hand,” police wrote. Bostic jumped from the second-story window carrying the six-year-old and landed on his side to break their fall. “The 6-year-old was mostly uninjured,” the news release states. Police body camera video from the scene shows Bostic running toward emergency crews with the child in his arms before handing him to an officer and falling to the ground. Panting, he exclaims, “I need oxygen!” Bostic has since walked out of the hospital a hero, having saved all the occupants of the home without serious injury. The Lafayette Fire Department believes the house fire was started by a bucket of ashes on the porch that was not fully extinguished, according to the Lafayette Journal & Courier. The parents of four of the five rescued youngsters – one of the teenagers was sleeping – were out on a date when the fire started and returned home to find their house engulfed in flames and surrounded by emergency vehicles. Story continues below ad David and Tiera Barrett expressed their gratitude to Bostic in an interview with the Exponent. “I literally told him he’s part of our family now,” David Barrett said. “And he was involved in it. Once we settle somewhere, we’ll invite him and his girlfriend over for dinner.” 1:53 Varsity community up in arms after two suspicious house fires in less than three weeks Previous Video Next Video © 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
