By Lana Groves
The Deseret News
OGDEN, Utah — Neighbors and fire crews are calling Steve Thornton a hero for rescuing an Ogden woman and six of her grandchildren from a blazing duplex fire Wednesday.
But Thornton is haunted by the fact that he couldn’t save his 65-year-old next-door neighbor from the flames.
“I saw him reaching for me, but I couldn’t get to him because of the flames,” Thornton told the Deseret News.
“I can’t get that out of my head.”
Thornton, his wife, and his brother Michael were walking over to a nearby car wreck in their Ogden neighborhood about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday when they noticed flames shooting out the front window of the duplex next door at 2265 S. Monroe Blvd.
While his wife ran for help, Thornton tried to access his neighbor, Vietnam War veteran Robert Fay Thompson and could see him stuck in the house through the flames.
His brother sprinted to the back of the house to grab a water hose and Steve Thornton quickly ran back to douse flames that had already started spreading to the second half of the duplex — where Elena Martinez was watching over six children.
When the brothers noticed a child from a back-side window, they realized more people were still inside — and in danger.
The men, who were quickly joined by their father-in-law Scott Berry, had to knock down the door to get to the children.
Their grandmother, who was watching over her two daughters’ children, at first feared she was being robbed.
“I kicked in the door and pulled (one) kid out,” Michael Thornton said. “I know Spanish. (I) told the grandmother what I was doing and carried a kid out in a stroller.”
In all, six children were saved.
But the men were unable to rescue Thompson.
Maria Martinez, the mother of two of the rescued children, was about a block away when she heard about the fire and feared for her children.
“I was just around the corner,” she said. “I just came running. I was so scared they had gotten hurt.”
Her children, ages 3 and 7, and four of their cousins, ages 1 to 11, were frightened when they were carried out of the home by strangers, she said.
And frightened to learn that the house was on fire.
The fire began in Thompson’s side of the home, just an hour after family had left the victim smoking in the living room.
Thompson, who was recovering from cancer, had recently been taken home by his family after a few months in a nearby care center.
The victim lived with his brother Richard, and had been spending time with family members until they left around 2 p.m., said Dale Howe, who said he had recently been informally adopted by Robert Thompson and his wife Jane’s family.
Just an hour and a half later, Howe said they received a call from the fire marshall informing them that Robert Thompson had perished in a fire at his home.
“He was a really happy-go-lucky guy,” family members said. “The kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back.”
Two wheelchairs and several oxygen tanks were carted out from the burned out building, while family members comforted each other as best as possible.
Fire officials removed the victim’s body behind a green tarp.
Officials would not release a cause of the fire, but Ogden Deputy Fire Chief Chad Tucker speculated the fire might have originated from the victim’s smoking near an oxygen tank.
Howe, who had gone in and out of the house, said there was a big hole in one of the inside walls from what appeared to be an explosion.
Neighbors, including parents of the six rescued children and their grandmother, huddled on the opposite side of the yellow police tape.
Martinez said one of the two brothers came to apologize for breaking in the door.
“I didn’t care about the door,” she said while holding her 3-year-old son. “I’m just grateful they saved my children.”
While describing the tragedy, Tucker broke down and had to pause as he explained how the rescuers didn’t think about themselves in their focus to help their neighbors.
“It’s heroic,” Tucker said. “They did an amazing job. They didn’t question. They didn’t think about their safety. They went to help someone in need.”
By the time fire crews arrived on scene, just a minute after they were called, the fire was out.
Officials estimate the blaze caused about $60,000 in damage and the families living there have been displaced.
Steve Thornton couldn’t talk about his fallen neighbor, a man he had talked to a few times just outside in their yards.
Michael Thornton said he was happy to assist, but downplayed their rescue efforts.
“I don’t feel like a hero,” he said. “I just hope someone would do that for my kids.”
Copyright 2010 The Deseret News Publishing Co.