On March 24, shortly before 6 p.m., Jacqueline Carter stopped at a Kwik Stop convenience store to pick up a scratch ticket after work.
While exiting the store, someone asked her if she called 911.
She asked the person, “For what?” as she turned and noticed the apartment building across the street, at 19 Brenda Road in Dudley, was on fire.
Carter immediately ran across the street and started pounding on the building’s doors and called 911.
“I made my way up to the second floor,” Carter said. “And that’s when the elderly woman came out.”
Carter said as she and the woman approached the stairs to exit the building, they found the staircase completely engulfed in smoke.
“There was no clear vision or anything,” she said. “It was completely dark.”
Carter began to choke due to the smoke and told the woman to come with her, but when Carter exited the building, she realized she was alone.
“When I got outside, I said, ‘There’s still a woman upstairs trapped. I couldn’t save her,’” Carter said. “And I yelled that they need to go help her.”
By now, Dudley Police Officer Ryan Daniels had arrived on the scene. He was later joined by a civilian, Anthony Fitzherbert, who was there to photograph the fire, and Dudley Police Officer Timothy Bullock, who was off-duty at the time.
“As soon as I heard the officer say there was entrapment, I kind of put the camera down and asked him what we needed,” said Fitzherbert. “And we both just attempted to make entry and [were] hit by a lot of smoke, heat and flames and backed out. And it just wasn’t one of those giving up things, and just kept going.”
After several attempts, Fitzherbert ran in and up the stairs to the elderly woman and pulled her out of her apartment. As he led her down the stairs, Daniels and Bullock ran back inside the building and carried the woman down the remaining stairs and outside.
Dudley firefighters and EMS arrived on scene and treated the woman before she was taken to a local hospital with injuries not considered to be life-threatening.
The group of four, Carter, Daniels, Fitzherbert and Bullock, who acted to save the woman, were all awarded the Worcester District Attorney’s Team Excellence And Merit (TEAM) award Wednesday at the Dudley Fire Department.
The four individuals, together, helped save the woman’s life, said Worcester District Attorney Joseph D. Early, Jr.
“This is an excellent example of officers and civilians working together and going above and beyond what was expected in order to help someone in need,” Early said. “I am proud to honor these four individuals.”
At the time of the fire, Fitzherbert was in the process of working to become an on-call firefighter for the town of Dudley. He has since become one.
His daughter Arianna said she told all of her friends at school about her dad helping save the woman from the fire.
“I’m so proud,” she said.
Dudley Fire Chief Dean Kochanowski said the conditions of the day were very hot and humid, making it even more difficult for individuals without gear to enter the burning building.
“We’re very fortunate to have people in town who are willing to help out. If it wasn’t for the two officers, my call firefighter, and the civilian, I think lives would have been lost. Lives were saved because of their quick thinking and actions,” he said.
Dudley Police Chief Steven Wojnar said it’s good to see there are still people in the world willing to sacrifice themselves for others.
“We’re very proud of the accomplishments of Officer Daniels and the others who participated in this rescue. It is one of those scenarios where you see a good outcome from people who were willing to put their lives on the line to save someone’s life, a person they didn’t know,” Wojnar said.
The March fire is the second time Bullock helped save a life while off duty, the DA’s office said.
“In 2019, the officer was in East Brookfield when a man accidentally cut his arm with a circular saw,” the office said. “Officer Bullock heard the man call for help, secured a tourniquet to the man’s upper arm and saved the man from possible life-threatening injuries.”
The TEAM Award was created by Mr. Early in 2019 to recognize public safety employees who go above and beyond the call of duty.
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