TOWN OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. — A house fire in the Town of Tonawanda trapped two elderly women inside. Thanks to the quick thinking of three bystanders, one of the women was able to make it out alive.
“That was one of the worst [fires] we’ve been a part of. It had a one-hour head start on us,” fire chief of the Ellwood Fire Department Zach McFadden said.
Around 4 a.m. Friday morning, a home on the 500 block of Englewood Ave. was engulfed in flames, it had been on fire for over 30 minutes before the first 911 call reported it.
That call came from Connor Brogan.
He tells 7 News he couldn’t sleep, so he went for a much earlier workout than normal, as he approached the Englewood house, he knew those two elderly women were in danger.
“I was coming home, riding my bike from an early workout, and I saw a house that looked to be a bonfire,” Connor said. “Arriving on the scene, there was already somebody that was banging on the door, trying to get the older woman to wake up.”
That’s when Connor knew he had to help.
“I had to break into the window to alert her… I was screaming at the top of my lungs for a couple of minutes, but she wasn’t hearing,” Connor said. “At that time, I knew she was hard of hearing. Me screaming at the top of my lungs, all the banging going on outside, you’d think she’d wake up, but she didn’t. At this point in time, I grabbed a glass, I shattered it, started making as much ruckus as a I possible could.”
“A couple minutes later, she finally heard me, thank God. I was able to hear her voice, and I kept telling her to come to my voice,” Connor said.
“What’s the thought going through your head once you finally do see her?"
"Thank God. The amount of smoke in that house, there’s no way anybody would have survived that," Connor said.
Thanks to Connor, 75-year-old Jeannie O’Day escaped and was taken to ECMC for treatment due to smoke inhalation.
However, the other resident, 71-year-old Mary Rogers, never made it out.
“With the conditions of that house and all the smoke, every second, every minute, counted a lot in there. They were absolutely vital in the survival of that person,” McFadden said.
For McFadden, he feels Connor’s actions were nothing short of heroic.
“That was incredible. To go in a situation like that with no training, no gear on, is very remarkable.”
“I wasn’t even thinking, it was just a reaction,” Connor said.
"The firefighters said what you did was very heroic, what do you make of that?"
“I suppose, I’m sure anybody else would do it. I’d hope somebody would do that for my family,” Connor said.
Town of Tonawanda Police say the fire is believed to have been caused by cigarette smoking.
