Eight-year-old boy 'hero' saves six from fire

Fourth grader Tyler Doohan helped rescue six people from a New York mobile home after fire broke out. But Tyler Doohan died trying to save his grandfather. An online fund has been set up to pay for his funeral.

An online fundraising campaign has raised enough money to pay for the funeral of an 8-year-old New York boy who died while trying to rescue his disabled grandfather from a burning mobile home.

Tyler Doohan managed to rouse six people from sleep and get them out of the house, according to Monroe County Sheriff's deputies

The page set up on YouCaring.com for Tyler Doohan says more than $12,000 has been raised as of Wednesday morning.

Authorities in the town of Penfield, just east of Rochester, say the boy alerted relatives to the fire early Monday morning inside his grandfather's trailer home, and that six of them escaped.

They say the boy died while trying to rescue his grandfather, who used a wheelchair and crutches after losing a leg.

Fire officials say Tyler's body was found just a few feet from his 57-year-old grandfather. A 54-year-old uncle also died.

Cpl. John Helfer of the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said nine people were in the single-wide trailer in the town of Penfield when the fire started around 4:45 a.m. Monday.

The dead were identified as 57-year-old Louis Beach, the homeowner; 54-year-old Steven Smith, and 8-year-old Tyler Doohan of East Rochester.  Helfer said four adults and two children, ages 4 and 6, were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Richard Stutzman, Jr., Interim Superintendent told WHEC-TV in Rochester: “Tyler was a very caring young man, always had a smile on his face.” Actually I just got an email from one of our staff members, who when they heard Tyler had gone back in, or continued to help his grandfather get out of the burning building, they were not surprised at all. That's the type of young man he was, and in my heart and the heart of East Rochester, he's a true hero.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Eight-year-old boy 'hero' saves six from fire
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/0122/Eight-year-old-boy-hero-saves-six-from-fire
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe