Sometimes a story just hits you four-square right in the gut. This is one such story….
… Little 8-year-old Tyler Doohan was spending a night with his pa-pa and family in Western New York State when a fire broke out around 4am in the family’s mobile home. Tyler jumped to action and woke up everyone, saving six people inside the home. However, when the seven were safely outside Tyler realized his disabled Uncle and Grandpa were still inside.
The fourth grader, Tyler, rushed back in to save them… Tyler, his uncle Steve, and his pa-pa Louis died. The fire department say his heroic little body was found with an arm wrapped around his Uncle…. still trying.
New York – Tyler J. Doohan knew he didn’t have school Monday morning because of the holiday, and asked his mother if it would be OK if he stayed at his grandfather’s trailer at the East Avenue Manufactured Home Community off Route 441 in Penfield.
It was a place Tyler knew well. He stayed there frequently, playing with other kids in the neighborhood and having barbecues and bonfires with his family in the summer.
It was in the back bedroom of that small, single-wide trailer at 39 Fondiller Ave. that firefighters found Tyler’s body Monday morning, just a few feet away from the bed of his disabled Uncle Steve, who investigators believe Tyler was trying to save.
Firefighters say Tyler, an 8-year-old who seemingly spent much of his young life in different homes and school districts, was killed along with his grandfather, Louis J. Beach, 57, and Steven D. Smith, 54, in a fire that appears to have been caused by an electrical problem at the front of the trailer. (read more)
Another report is available via The Daily Mail:
A community in western New York is in mourning the death of an 8-year-old boy who was killed in a trailer fire while attempting to rescue his disabled uncle and grandfather.
Cpl. John Helfer of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said nine people were in the single-wide mobile home in the town of Penfield when the fire started around 4.45am Monday.
The inferno claimed the life of 8-year-old Tyler Doohan, and also killed his grandfather, 57-year-old Louis Beach, and the boy’s amputee uncle, 54-year-old Steven Smith. A dog also perished in the blaze.
Sheriff’s deputies say Doohan, who was staying in Beach’s trailer overnight, apparently discovered the fire and roused six people who got out safely.
Helfer said four adults and two children, ages 4 and 6, were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
The Democrat and Chronicle reported that Tyler asked his mother if he could stay with his grandpa at 39 Fondiller Avenue because he knew he was off from school Monday for Martin Luther King Jr Day.
A couple of hours before dawn, an electrical fire broke out at the front of the trailer and quickly engulfed the tiny residence that housed nine people who were sound asleep at the time.
Tyler Doohan woke up first and alerted six of his relatives, among them two children, who were able to escape. (continue reading)
A fund has been set up to help the family of Tyler Doohan pay for a funeral