By Mary Divine
Pioneer Press
Copyright 2007 Pioneer Press
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
FOREST LAKE, Minn. — Forest Lake Deputy Fire Chief Bruce Wightman was at home asleep when he got the call at 1 a.m. Wednesday. “Structure fire at the Woodlund trailer court. Children trapped inside.”
Within three minutes, Wightman, a 30-year veteran of the volunteer fire department, had thrown on jeans, a black Forest Lake Fire Department sweatshirt and athletic shoes and was in his squad car, headed for the mobile home park just two miles away.
He knew exactly where he was going. He once lived in the mobile home park. He arrived at 97 Lee St. at 1:05 a.m. and learned that at least two children — a 6-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl — were trapped in a back bedroom.
The children’s mother was outside screaming, “My kids are inside! Save my kids!” Wightman said.
Wightman could see smoke pouring from the mobile home, but no flames. He tried the back door, but it was locked. He grabbed a police officer’s nightstick, smashed the door’s window and reached in to unlock it. He crawled into the burning building with no gear and began feeling around.
Almost immediately, he felt a little arm.
“I got down on my belly and stuck my head and arms in there to see what I could feel,” Wightman said. “The smoke was so thick, I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t hear anything. All I could do was feel.”
He passed the unconscious child over his head to Sgt. Sean Lafferty of the Forest Lake Police Department, who was standing behind him.
“Then I rolled back over and went reaching for the next one,” Wightman said. “I found another arm and did the same thing, passing them over my body to somebody else.”
It all happened so fast, he’s not sure whom he grabbed first -- Nate or Hannah Jacobs.
He said he turned around to go back in to look for a possible third victim, Andy LaBossiere, Nate and Hannah’s half brother, but was immediately called back. Officials told him the 17-year-old had been found; he wasn’t home at the time of the fire.
Nate and Hannah were flown to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis to be treated for smoke inhalation. They were listed in critical condition Wednesday night; a family member said both had been awake briefly.
The children’s mother, Tracey LaBossiere, was inside the home at the time and escaped without injury.
Wightman, 53, also was not injured. In fact, after saving the kids, Wightman returned home about 4 a.m., slept for an hour and drove to Virginia, Minn., for his job as a project manager for Interior Care and Construction Co. “It’s been quite a day,” he said.
Forest Lake fire officials are working with the state Fire Marshal’s office to determine a cause. The fire appears to have started in a corner of the mobile home’s master bedroom, where Tracey LaBossiere and Nate were sleeping, said Patty LaBossiere, Tracey’s sister.
Hannah, who was asleep in her bedroom, apparently woke up when she smelled smoke and ran to find her mother, Patty LaBossiere said. “Her first instinct would be to go to Mom,” she said.
During a news conference Wednesday afternoon outside the hospital, Patty LaBossiere said her sister couldn’t remember what happened next. She doesn’t know how the children got to a back bedroom.
“I know that she was outside and that she was trying to get the kids out and that she was screaming,” Patty LaBossiere said. “It was too hot or too smoky for her to be there.”
Nate just finished kindergarten and loves to fish, swim and ride his bike. Hannah is in preschool and is a bundle of energy. The siblings are inseparable, she said. “I call them Peat and Repeat.”
Tracey LaBossiere and the children’s father, Jason Jacobs, want to thank Wightman for all he did, she said.
“We all just want to give that man a hug,” she said. “We can’t believe that he did that. They are so very lucky. If it had been any more time, I really don’t think they would have made it.”
She said she was encouraging her sister to think positively. “I keep telling her, ‘They didn’t die. Your kids are alive. They’re alive. They were saved. They’re in good hands.’ ”
Their three-bedroom mobile home, however, likely will be a total loss. The Nate and Hannah Jacobs Fund has been set up at TCF Bank to help the family rebuild.
A neighbor, Dennis Giwoyna, spent most of Wednesday keeping an eye on things. He sifted through family photos and albums and saved a trash bag full of them. “This is worth more than the trailer,” he said. “I want to save this.”
Giwoyna called Wightman a hero. “His quick thinking saved the kids’ lives, there’s no question about it,” he said.
Fire Chief Gary Sigfrinius agreed.
“If he hadn’t done what he did in the time that he did it, the outcome I believe would have been gravely different,” Sigfrinius said. “It’s a good day in the Forest Lake Fire Department. This is one of those heroic stories that firefighting legends are built on.”