GUARDIAN ANGELS: Firefighters hailed as ‘guardian angels’ by victim

Published 9:15 am Friday, August 30, 2019

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — Darius Wilkerson said he has always respected firefighters, but now regards them as personal heroes.

The 32-year-old Wilkerson, who works as a material handler at Innovative Packaging Company in Milledgeville, only vaguely remembers the night of Aug. 23, when his residence at Michele Terrace Apartments caught fire.

The reason — Wilkerson was overcome by a thick blanket of smoke that had built up in his bedroom and caused him to eventually pass out on the floor as he frantically tried to escape.

Wilkerson was just barely clinging to life when BCFR Firefighter Michael Dyer spotted him lying on the floor, shortly after he and Candler O’Neil, a rookie volunteer firefighter and a junior nursing student at Georgia College, gained entry into the victim’s apartment.

“I was trying to get out of the apartment, but the smoke got to me and I collapsed with my phone in my hand,” recalled Wilkerson. “I was trying to unlock the door and call 911 at the time.”

Wilkerson said he went to his bedroom to lay down for a while as he cooked some chicken in a frying pan on the stove.

Lt. Bradley Towe, who serves as the training officer and one of the fire investigators with Baldwin County Fire Rescue, said if Wilkerson had not been rescued when he was he would not have survived the blaze that caused extensive fire, heat and smoke damages.

“Another 30 seconds, I don’t think he would have made it,” Towe told The Union-Recorder in an exclusive interview Thursday afternoon at fire headquarters on Allen Memorial Drive.

The cause of the fire was grease left unattended on the stove, a fire official said.

Wilkerson, who sustained serious burns to his left shoulder and arm, was released from the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta where he was taken by personnel from Grady Emergency Medical Services following the fire. Wilkerson’s arm remains bandaged and he still has to go back to the burn center for follow-up visits with his doctor.

“I just want to say, thank you, for getting there on time,” said a soft-spoken Wilkerson after he met and shook hands and received embraces from some from the firefighters who responded to the fire call shortly before 10 p.m.

Wilkerson said he considers the firefighters who took part in helping him that night to be heroes.

Those firefighters, in addition to Dyer, O’Neil and Bradley, include Raymond Somers, Lt. Web Marshall Jr., Gary Smith and Eddie Braswell.

“It was like an angel grabbed me,” Wilkerson said, describing the firefighters as his “guardian angels.”

The firefighter who rescued Wilkerson was Dyer, a former New York firefighter, who has been with Baldwin County Fire Rescue for the past few years.

“We — me and my partner — Candler, went into the apartment to see if we could find the source of the fire,” Dyer said, noting they discovered the fire in the kitchen. “After making entry, we used a thermal imagining camera to find the heat source. We then went over and pulled the cabinet and walls, and found the flames. I told Candler to start spraying water on the fire.”

 Dyer said he discovered a room off to the side and walked into it to determine whether or not anyone was in there.

“I told Candler that I was going to do a quick search of the bedroom,” Dyer said. “I took the flashlight, looked over top of the bed and the bed looked like someone had been sleeping in it. I then began searching the floor and that’s when I saw a foot in a white sock and then the rest of his body. The flashlight actually reflected off the white sock.”

Dyer said smoke had filled the room was real thick by that time.

“I found him laying on the floor, halfway between the bathroom and the bedroom,” Dyer said.

The veteran firefighter hollered back to O’Neil that he had found a victim.

“I said let them know, I’m bringing one out,” Dyer said. “I then grabbed him (Wilkerson) and just dragged him out the back door in what in the old days, we called a fireman’s drag.”

Dyer said after he got Wilkerson out of the apartment that he turned him over to Towe.

“At that point in time, he was unresponsive and breathing only two to three times a minute,” Towe said. “I immediately started patient care on him and giving him oxygen at that time in an attempt to get him back.”

Towe said Wilkerson had been burned on his left shoulder and arm and the tips of both ears.

Grady EMS was en route to the fire and continued life-saving measures when they arrived.

O’Neil called the experience of helping save a life heartwarming.

“It’s definitely heartwarming to help save someone’s life and make a difference the community,” O’Neil said, after meeting Wilkerson for the first time since the fire.

O’Neil, a nursing student at Georgia College, rode in the ambulance with Wilkerson to the hospital.

The chance meeting between Wilkerson and firefighters was arranged by Baldwin County Fire Rescue Chief Steve Somers, who praised the firefighters who played a role in the fire call.

Lt. Marshall, who was the battalion chief on the night of the fire, has recommended that Dyer receive a valor award for heroism in the rescue of Wilkerson. He also has recommended that O’Neil receive a meritorious commendation for his role as a member of the attack team.

Marshall is also recommending that Towe receive meritorious commendation for the life-saving measures he rendered.

The firefighters will be honored during a special awards ceremony Tuesday night during the Baldwin County Board of Commissioners’ meeting. The 6 p.m. meeting is open to the public.