How His Quick Thinking And A Trampoline Saved A Whole Family

A heroic teenager helped to save the people in the building after a fire engulfed his apartment complex in Pennsylvania.

The 17-year-old, Falon O’Regan is applauded for his quick action, helping to deploy a nearby trampoline to allow neighbors to escape an overnight apartment fire early Tuesday morning near Pittsburgh.

O’Regan was about to go to bed around 12:50 a.m. when he noticed that the apartment complex he was living in had caught on fire and realized he needed to act fast. Multiple residents were trapped in the building after the fire broke out, the Bentleyville Fire-Rescue said, according to Fox News.

The apartment fire occurred in Bentleyville, Pennsylvania, located approximately 30 miles south of Pittsburgh, on the 100 Block of Church Street.

O’Regan told the Daily Mail as he recounted his first moments of learning that there was a fire in the apartment complex:

“I opened the [front] door … and I was flabbergasted, I stared at it for a couple of seconds, closed it, grabbed the stuff that I could, broke a door, broke a window, and I jumped,” he said.

O’Regan grabbed his birth certificate, wallet, and phone and left a window open for his four cats as he hurried to help others.

He initially considered using a swimming pool to help rescue his fellow residents but realized it would have been too heavy to move.

He then realized he could use a nearby trampoline, and with the help of his neighbor, Robert, they moved it to the side of the apartment.

“Me and Robert, my neighbor downstairs, had to move the trampoline from the side of the house to the three bedrooms on the last part of the house because they would’ve gotten hurt if we didn’t,” O’Regan told a local news outlet.

Residents were reluctant to jump out of the window, but it seemed as if there was no other way out of the inferno. “I had to talk them into jumping,” O’Regan recalled, per the Daily Mail. Two adults, two dogs, and two children jumped to safety using the trampoline, the outlet reported.

Here’s what Resident Michael Groots said, according to WCAU-TV.

“You look out the window and the fire’s starting through your doorway and you literally have fire coming at you and you have to jump. You have to jump. There’s no other option.”

Three people were taken to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation, while another person injured their leg while jumping out.

The fire officials are currently investigating how the fire started and noted the roof of the complex partially collapsed.

Twelve adults and six children all made it out of the building and are currently being taken care of by the Red Cross.

Watch the video report here: WTAE-TV/Youtube

Sources: WesternJournal, WPXI-TV, Fox News, Daily Mail, WCAU-TV