At first, 15-year-old Connor Byce thought he was viewing a bright sun, but within a second, he realized it was actually flames coming from his neighbor’s Homer Township home on Monday, Jan. 24.
Two houses down, Kathleen Nieman, 78, hadn’t slept the previous night and didn’t fall asleep until 5 a.m. The next thing she remembers is someone pounding on her door and awakening her to a house filled with smoke. It was Connor, a Bullock Creek High School student, and his mother, Patti, at the door.
“He saved my life,” Nieman said of Connor, saying she was in a deep sleep and would have slept through the ordeal and probably would not have made it out alive if not for the teen’s actions. Nieman’s husband wasn’t home; he was at a local rehabilitation center for health issues.
The teen had gone to his mother’s car to get something out before school when he noticed the flames. He screamed to his mother, “Call 911, fire.”
Connor then ran to Nieman’s house while Patti drove over, and they began banging on the door to get her out, not knowing she was still sound asleep.
“I did what I had to do,” Connor said, noting he didn’t feel like he did anything special.
“They are very nice people,” Connor added of the Niemans. “It feels good that I was able to help.”
When he got to school that day, he only told a couple of friends about what had happened. They thought it was cool, he said.
Patti said she is very proud of her son and his quick thinking.
Once Connor and Patti got Nieman out of the house, she remembers them ushering her through the snow and into their car with just one sock on. She was having trouble breathing due to a COPD attack. Patti called EMS and they arrived and took Nieman to the hospital.
“I’m just so thankful to that boy,” Nieman said of her neighbor.
Also taking quick action from the 911 call was the Homer Township Fire Department, which arrived moments after the call and found a shed behind the house on fire in the 1300 block of Meridian Road.
Homer Township Fire Chief John Hanson said the cause of the fire is undetermined. Thanks to the firefighters’ suppression efforts, they kept the flames from engulfing Nieman’s house. Hanson said it did cause some damage to the side of her house, which is how smoke got inside the structure.
Midland and Lee township firefighters assisted Homer Township firefighters in extinguishing the blaze. Midland County Sheriff’s deputies secured the road.
Work is still being done on the Nieman’s house. She is anxious for it to be done and for her husband to come back home.
“I can’t say thank you enough to Connor, his mom, the firefighters and EMS,” Nieman said, noting there really are good people in the world.