DETROIT – On National First Responders Day, a Detroit mother is expressing her gratitude.
“Thank you so much for everything. You saved my baby. You saved my family,” said Jasmine Nesbitt as she held her two-year-old son, Jayveon.
Nesbitt and her son reunited with the Detroit firefighters at Ladder 18, who rescued the toddler from a fire at their home on Jan. 22.
--> Firefighters reunite with family after heroically rescuing toddler from flames in Detroit
The fire happened near 7 Mile Road and Woodward Avenue on Hollywood Avenue.
Fire Lt. David Howard found Jayveon, who was one year old at that time.
“I noticed Jayveon on the hallway floor. It’s kind of emotional now. He was there on the floor. I felt him. His heartbeat was heavy. I grabbed him.”
Howard carried Jayveon out of the house as firefighter Travis Winter worked to keep the flames off of them.
“We knew what we had to do,” said Winter. “There was somebody trapped, and we went and executed our plan that we thought would work, and it worked.”
Because of that plan, they were able to see Jayveon nine months later. During Monday’s reunion, they presented him with a teddy, a toy helmet, and a hug.
“It was amazing,” said Howard. “Just to be able to hold him in a better situation than when I first held him.”
Nesbitt said treatments will continue, including cosmetic procedures scheduled for January, but “he’s healing very fast.”
While she thanked the firefighters, she thinks that her fire safety plan helped.
“You yell ‘fire,’ get out, get to safety, and stay at safety, and call 911,” she explained.
Fire Chief David Nelson said to have a plan and “talk to your kids about how they should exit the building. The classic: if you’re on fire, ‘stop, drop and roll.’”
He added that homes and other buildings have working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Nesbitt hopes the reminders can help someone as she looks toward the future. Despite being grateful, she said it has been a difficult road.
“It’s a lot, but I’m doing my best. And I’m just grateful that I have a lot more days with him than it looked like at the beginning.”
The Detroit Fire Department will honor Howard and Winter with the Medal of Valor. The men will be recognized by the Detroit Public Safety Foundation’s Above and Beyond Awards at Ford Field on Nov. 13.