By Mike Hoover
The Evening Sun
YORK, Pa. — Jim Welty and Osborne “Ozzie” Bowman were covering furniture with plastic to prevent water damage from firefighting efforts above them when they thought they saw something move in the darkness under a blanket on a sofa.
Welty remembers yelling four or five times: “Fire department! Is someone there?”
He moved the blanket and the head of a child popped up.
A few seconds later, a second head popped up; then, a third.
“We had three scared kids hiding under the blankets. They just looked at us wide-eyed,” said Welty, a volunteer with the Eagle Hose Co. in York.
The children — girls ages 1, 4 and 7 — were discovered more than 30 minutes after firefighters arrived for a fire in the roof of a two-unit apartment building at 339 S. Duke St. at 7:35 p.m. Monday.
Bowman — a firefighter for 48 years — said he never expected to find the children while he was working a salvage detail to cover the furniture from the water cascading through the ceiling.
Firefighters had been pounding the stairs to get to the fire on the roof and third floor, he said. Yet amid the lights, sirens and commotion, the children managed to stay huddled together asleep on a first-floor couch, home alone with no supervision, he said.
“It tears at your heart. I was teed off. I wanted to know where the parents were,” said Bowman, a volunteer with the Laurel Fire Co. in York.
The fire could have easily spread behind the walls down to the lower floors, he said. The children could have been overcome with deadly smoke, he said.
And Bowman wonders what would have happened if two alert city police officers had not spotted the fire as quickly as they did.
“You could have had a fully involved house fire with three dead children. They were very, very lucky,” said Bowman, who has seven grandchildren.
The girls were taken to York Hospital, where they were determined to be fine. The children have been placed in protective custody by York County Children and Youth Services, Detective Troy Cromer said. He declined further comment until an investigation is complete.
Welty remembers getting down on a knee to talk to the children. He kept telling them everything was OK and not to be afraid.
He then told the children they had to go outside because the building was on fire. The girls did not want to go. Welty said he thinks the children were frightened because they had just woken up to find three strange men in firefighting turnout gear.
Then, two girls put their arms out to Welty. He put out his arms, and they crawled in.
Welty headed for the door, where he met York Fire/Rescue Services Deputy Chief Steve Buffington, who offered to take one of the children. David Markle, a volunteer with the Union Fire Co. in York, was right behind with the third girl in his arms.
Welty remembers keeping his focus on the children and finding an emergency medical technician outside.
“I carried the little girl the whole way out. She had a death grip on my turncoat. I could feel her grip around my collar and neck. She was scared,” the 49-year-old Welty said.
Bowman said he remembers a stunned crowd beginning to buzz as firefighters came out the door with the children.
“Everyone was asking: ‘Where did you find them?’ There was no word of entrapment. No one knew. We thought everyone was out. Everyone was in shock,” Bowman said.
The fire caused an estimated $10,000 in structural damage and $5,000 in content damage.
During his investigation, Cromer said, he found the first-floor apartment full of trash, bugs and fecal material.
Bowman said the apartment was dark but he remembers walking through trash amid a distinct, putrid odor.
“The place was filthy. It smelled. There was stuff strewn around and an odor of feces and urine,” Bowman said.
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