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Unknown youngster riding a bicycle is hailed for alerting residents of Garfield Street home to fire. One resident escapes, another does not
By Jim Carney
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Saturday, Nov 01, 2008
Donna Little wants to say thank you to the boy on a bike who she believes saved her son's life.
When fire broke out in her home on Garfield Street in North Akron on the morning of Oct. 17, neighbors told her a young bicyclist alerted her husband and son.
''There was a little kid on a bike that saw the fire,'' said Donna Little, whose husband of 29 years, Thomas Matthew ''Matt'' Little, perished in the fire. '' . . . He jumped off the bike and kicked on the doors and windows and yelled, 'The house is on fire, the house is on fire!' ''
Matt Little must have heard the calls, she said, and pounded on the bedroom wall to wake up their 28-year-old son, Joshua, who left the Marine Corps in August after 10 years of service.
Joshua was able to escape the fire by climbing out a second- floor window onto the burning roof and then jumping to a Bronco truck that was down below.
An Akron Fire Department spokesman said firefighters had not heard the story of the child on the bike and therefore it was not on the reports about the fatal fire, which was started by an overloaded electrical outlet.
Donna Little, who was at her housekeeping job at St. Thomas Hospital when the fire broke out, said she heard about the boy from her brother and sister-in-law who lived next door and from another neighbor on her street.
''I would like to thank him because he probably got Matt awake,'' she said.
When Donna Little went back into the house after the fire, she saw her husband's hand prints from pounding on the wall to wake up their son.
''He had to make sure Josh got out,'' she said.
Her son heard his father's screams, she said, and tried to open his door but couldn't touch the doorknob because it was so hot.
Donna Little said the family had lived in the 104-year-old house on Garfield Street for 18 years and had been purchasing it on a land contract for 13 years. They still owed $17,000 on the house.
The people from whom she and her husband were purchasing the house had insurance on the home, she said. The fire department put the loss to the building at $50,000.
The family had no insurance to cover the $20,000 in personal contents lost in the blaze.
''We lost absolutely everything,'' Donna Little said. ''I am grateful I still have my son.''
She and Joshua now are living with daughter April Johnson and her family in Norton.
Matt Little, who worked for Straightline Drywall and RJS Homes in Barberton, was buried in a family cemetery near his hometown of Farmington, W.Va., four days after the fire.
Scott Price, general manager of RJS Homes, described Matt Little, a field technician for the company, as a ''very, very hard worker. He never complained when you asked him to do something. He took it upon himself to make sure things were done. He loved to talk. A very good guy. We dearly miss him.''
Donna Little said she and her family are getting by one day at a time.
''I cry and I pray,'' she said.
Donations to assist the family can be made to the T. Matt Little Memorial Fund at any FirstMerit Bank branch.
Jim Carney can be reached at 330-996-3576 or jcarney@thebeaconjournal.com.
Donna Little wants to say thank you to the boy on a bike who she believes saved her son's life.
Get the full article here.
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