Two employees of the Sun Parlor Home are being called heroes after they rescued a young woman who had been sleeping in the basement, as smoked rapidly filled the building.
Kevin Soulliere is the Manager of Building Services at Sun Parlor Home, where he has worked for 35 years, and Dylan Montague has been a Maintenance Worker at the Home for the past four years. Both were heralded by co-workers and praised by County of Essex leaders for their quick-thinking, selfless actions in an incredibly stressful situation.
It was just after 4:00pm on September 15th and Soulliere and Montague were on their way back to Sun Parlor Home after picking up some clothes hangers from Canadian Tire for the Home’s laundry. Soulliere could not make the trip alone. He cannot drive as his right foot has been locked in a walking boot for the past few weeks to allow a stress fracture to heal.
Not even 60 seconds after leaving Canadian Tire, they saw flames shooting out of a red-bricked home on Warren Avenue.
Montague slammed the brakes, shifted into reverse and quickly drove over to Warren Avenue. Before he could even put the vehicle into park, Soulliere jumped out and – protective foot boot and all – hobbled as fast as he could to the porch of the house. Montague followed right behind him and they learned that a person was sleeping in the basement.
“Neither of us said anything to each other. It was all too fast. We didn’t think about it. We just ran in,” Soulliere said.
Even though it was a small ranch-style house, not knowing where to locate the stairs to the basement delayed the rescue effort. Each man began searching while also checking closets and confirming there was no one else on the main floor.
“With my boot I was afraid to get stuck (in the basement),” Soulliere said, “so I went down the stairs only to the first landing. And I just kept yelling, ‘If anybody’s in the basement you need to get out, because the house is on fire!!!’”
At that moment, Montague could see that conditions inside the house were fast deteriorating, with flames growing in the kitchen only about six feet from the top of the stairway to the basement.
“I’m shouting down the stairs, like, ‘Kevin, we need to hurry!’ … The smoke wasn’t super bad when we entered, but by the time we were running out, it was.”
A woman who had been sleeping heard Soulliere’s warnings and clambered up the stairs. Montague had the presence of mind to ask the woman if there might be any pets in the house. There weren’t.
Soulliere then pointed to the front door, and out the trio went, coughing and gagging and shielding themselves from the heat, as the flames grew higher and hotter and smoke filled all corners of the house.
Leamington Fire crews arrived minutes after the rescue to put out the blaze. While most of the roof and most walls did not burn through, the house is gutted inside.
Soulliere and Montague then returned to work at Sun Parlor Home as if nothing had happened, but for the rest of their shifts coworkers keep asking them why they smell like a camp fire.