Beth Francis @bethfra04230366 - Twitter Profile

about 1 month ago

At 12:30 AM on July 11, 2022, Nick Bostic was twenty-five years old and driving through empty streets in Lafayette, Indiana, after an argument with his girlfriend — the kind of night where you need to move and think. Windows down, going nowhere in particular. Then he saw a small flame coming from a house on Union Street. He hit the brakes. Reversed. Pulled into the driveway. He had no phone with him. He tried to flag down a passing car. Nobody stopped. He ran to the back door and started yelling: is anybody home? Is anybody in there? Halfway up the stairs he found them — four people: an eighteen-year-old woman named Seionna Barrett carrying a twenty-month-old baby, and two thirteen-year-old girls behind her, terrified and confused. He led them out the back door and into the yard. Four people safe. Then Seionna started looking around frantically. Her face went pale. I can't find Kaylani. Her six-year-old sister. Still inside. The fire had spread. Flames were visible from multiple windows. Black smoke poured out. Nick looked back at the house and ran back in. He searched room by room, calling for Kaylani. The smoke was pitch black — he could not see his own hand. The heat was overwhelming. He considered jumping from a window while he still could. Then he heard crying. A child. Downstairs. In the living room. The worst part of the fire. He wrapped his shirt around his face and ran toward the sound. He dropped to his hands and knees and crawled through the smoke until he found her. Kaylani Barrett. Six years old. Alone in the darkness. Going back downstairs was no longer possible. His only option was up — back upstairs, find a window, jump. He carried Kaylani to a bedroom and punched through the glass with his bare fist. Blood ran down his arm. Her leg became tangled in the window blind cord. He forced himself to stay calm, carefully untangled her while the house burned around them. He positioned Kaylani on his left side, himself on his right, and jumped from the second floor. He hit the ground hard. A deep laceration on his right arm. Burns across his body. Smoke inhalation that would put him on a ventilator for three days. Lafayette police officers arrived just as he landed — their body cameras captured him stumbling forward, handing Kaylani to them, collapsing on the curb, asking one question over and over: Is the baby OK? Please tell me the baby is OK. Kaylani had a small cut on her foot from the glass. All five people were alive. Nick was airlifted to Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis in critical condition. Doctors were not certain he would survive. Three days later he was released. His lungs were still damaged. His arm was heavily bandaged. He was alive. He did not want to be called a hero. He told reporters he was just doing what anyone would do — that if he were the one trapped he would be hoping the driver passing by would consider doing the same. In May 2024, nearly two years after the fire, Nick Bostic received the Carnegie Medal — the highest civilian honor for heroism in the United States and Canada, awarded since 1904 to those who enter extreme danger to save others. Of the more than 120 years the medal has been awarded, only 10,355 people have received it. Kaylani Barrett is eight years old now. She calls Nick her guardian angel. He still lives in Lafayette. Still drives past houses. When asked about that night, he always says the same thing: it was all worth it. For those thinking about what Nick Bostic's decision — to go back inside when he had already done more than anyone could ask — shows about where genuine courage comes from: what does his question from the curb, is the baby OK, show you about what was actually driving him through that burning house?

Mr_Husky1's tweet photo. At 12:30 AM on July 11, 2022, Nick Bostic was twenty-five years old and driving through empty streets in Lafayette, Indiana, after an argument with his girlfriend — the kind of night where you need to move and think. Windows down, going nowhere in particular.
Then he saw a small flame coming from a house on Union Street.
He hit the brakes. Reversed. Pulled into the driveway. He had no phone with him. He tried to flag down a passing car. Nobody stopped. He ran to the back door and started yelling: is anybody home? Is anybody in there?
Halfway up the stairs he found them — four people: an eighteen-year-old woman named Seionna Barrett carrying a twenty-month-old baby, and two thirteen-year-old girls behind her, terrified and confused. He led them out the back door and into the yard.
Four people safe.
Then Seionna started looking around frantically. Her face went pale.
I can't find Kaylani. Her six-year-old sister. Still inside.
The fire had spread. Flames were visible from multiple windows. Black smoke poured out. Nick looked back at the house and ran back in.
He searched room by room, calling for Kaylani. The smoke was pitch black — he could not see his own hand. The heat was overwhelming. He considered jumping from a window while he still could.
Then he heard crying. A child. Downstairs. In the living room. The worst part of the fire.
He wrapped his shirt around his face and ran toward the sound. He dropped to his hands and knees and crawled through the smoke until he found her. Kaylani Barrett. Six years old. Alone in the darkness.
Going back downstairs was no longer possible. His only option was up — back upstairs, find a window, jump. He carried Kaylani to a bedroom and punched through the glass with his bare fist. Blood ran down his arm. Her leg became tangled in the window blind cord. He forced himself to stay calm, carefully untangled her while the house burned around them.
He positioned Kaylani on his left side, himself on his right, and jumped from the second floor.
He hit the ground hard. A deep laceration on his right arm. Burns across his body. Smoke inhalation that would put him on a ventilator for three days. Lafayette police officers arrived just as he landed — their body cameras captured him stumbling forward, handing Kaylani to them, collapsing on the curb, asking one question over and over:
Is the baby OK? Please tell me the baby is OK.
Kaylani had a small cut on her foot from the glass. All five people were alive.
Nick was airlifted to Eskenazi Hospital in Indianapolis in critical condition. Doctors were not certain he would survive. Three days later he was released. His lungs were still damaged. His arm was heavily bandaged. He was alive.
He did not want to be called a hero. He told reporters he was just doing what anyone would do — that if he were the one trapped he would be hoping the driver passing by would consider doing the same.
In May 2024, nearly two years after the fire, Nick Bostic received the Carnegie Medal — the highest civilian honor for heroism in the United States and Canada, awarded since 1904 to those who enter extreme danger to save others. Of the more than 120 years the medal has been awarded, only 10,355 people have received it.
Kaylani Barrett is eight years old now. She calls Nick her guardian angel.
He still lives in Lafayette. Still drives past houses. When asked about that night, he always says the same thing: it was all worth it.

For those thinking about what Nick Bostic's decision — to go back inside when he had already done more than anyone could ask — shows about where genuine courage comes from: what does his question from the curb, is the baby OK, show you about what was actually driving him through that burning house?

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Beth Francis

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