EVANSDALE, Iowa (AP) - Two construction workers are being hailed as heroes after saving two children from a burning duplex unit in Evansdale.
The city’s fire chief, Ryan Phillips, says Travis Moen and Ryan Siems were laying concrete in the area when they noticed the blaze on Monday afternoon. They rushed inside the home and quickly grabbed the 3-year-old and 5-year-old children.
”They were out working on the driveway out there, and they went back in and grabbed them ... and ran like there was no tomorrow,’ Phillips told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier.
Fire officials suspect the fire began in a bedroom when a child was playing with a lighter. The mother had tried to put out the blaze, which caught on an upstairs bed, by batting at it. She had fled the home upon realizing she couldn’t extinguish it, but couldn’t get back inside.
Crews from Evansdale, Waterloo, Raymond and Gilbertville arrived a shortly afterward to respond to the blaze. The neighboring unit sustained smoke damage from the fire, and firefighters had to cut electricity to the building.
According to Phillips, the children were not injured in the blaze.
The Hawkeye C Chapter of the American Red Cross was asked to assist the family and the neighbors with emergency shelter.
