A Windsor Man Expresses Gratitude to First Responders Who Rescued Him From a Burning Home
Story by Matthew St. Amand
Photography by John Liviero
When members of Windsor Fire and Rescue Services and Emergency Medical Service of Windsor Fire Station 7 arrived on Prado Place on the afternoon of May 26, they found a residence being completely devoured by fire.
“It was a one-story home and there were flames coming out of the garage and out the front window,” Captain Laz Sofikitis recalls. “The structure was totally involved. There was a lot of smoke.”
The night before, homeowners Tye Windibank and his wife Kandy, hosted friends at their house after an evening partying in downtown Windsor. Among their guests was Tye’s longtime friend, Jeff Anger.
Saturday night flowed into the wee hours of Sunday morning, and sometime before sunrise, the gathering broke up.
“After the party, I went to crash on Tye’s couch like I do whenever I stay over,” Jeff explains. “That night, though, his dog was already there so I went to the back bedroom and went to sleep.”
A few hours later, as everyone slept, a fire started in the house—its cause remains unknown.
It was all Tye and Kandy could do to get themselves out of the burning home.
Amid the confusion, the sound of fire truck sirens growing louder and louder, entering the neighbourhood, Tye looked around for his friend Jeff’s truck, outside. Wherever Jeff went, there was his truck—except the night before. Knowing he would not be in any condition to drive after a night of partying, Jeff caught a ride to the festivities. In the muddle of the moment, however, Tye forgot about all of this and assumed Jeff had gone home.
Luckily, one of the friends who stayed over, Erin Turner, called her sister, Lauren, who is a dispatcher with Windsor Fire Services. Erin asked her to tell the fire fighters that Jeff was still in the back bedroom.
“When we first arrived on the scene,” Laz says, “I assessed the situation. I was just masking-up when I got a call from the district chief saying there was a person still inside the house—in the back bedroom.”
Once the fire fighters donned their gear, they entered the blazing structure.
Laz continues: “Zac Livingston was on the nozzle and hit the fire, and Stephen Peters and I moved through the smoke with Jason Laughland. Visibility in the dwelling was zero. We made our way through by feel. Just finding a doorknob was a real feat in those conditions.”
Jason Laughland was the first to reach the back bedroom. He groped through the blinding smoke and felt a human foot. He felt his way up the body until he found the upper torso and then attempted to heave the person off the bed.
“Jeff is a big guy,” Laz recalls. “He’s about six-two, six-three and weighed about three hundred pounds.”
Undaunted, Jason hauled Jeff off the bed and got him into the hallway where Stephen and Laz helped to get him out of the house.
“I was on the radio saying we found a person in the dwelling and for EMTs to be ready to receive,” Laz says. “The unsung heroes are the paramedics on scene. Without them Mr. Anger would not be alive. All emergency services that were on the scene have my thanks and admiration for their assistance: EMS, Windsor Police who escorted the ambulance to Windsor Regional Hospital, getting Jeff to a waiting doctor, respirologist and nurses.”
Jeff has no memory of the experience.
“I had the vaguest impression of a woman, an EMS tech, screaming at me: ‘Stay with me! Stay with me!’” Jeff says. “I wanted to say, ‘I can’t breathe,’ but I had no air. It’s a nightmare having no air!”
Jeff died twice on the scene. EMS brought him back each time and then transported him.
“When I woke up, I had no idea what happened,” Jeff says. “My nurse, Steven, was standing at the end of my bed, looking at me. He said: ‘Hey Jeff. Do you know where you are?’
“I had no idea,” Jeff says. “I looked around and saw all these monitors. I could not feel my right arm. Steven said: ‘You’re in the Intensive Care Unit at Met Hospital. You’ve been here for eight days.’ They kept calling me ‘The Miracle Man.’”
Jeff later learned that doctors told his father that he had a three percent chance of surviving his injuries. When Jeff asked about the clothing he had been wearing the night of the fire, Steven told him: “Well, they ripped your shirt open to treat you at the scene… and your sandals melted.”
Jeff focused on his gratitude at having survived and for the excellent care he received from hospital staff.
“The people at Windsor Regional Hospital were wonderful to me. They were angels,” he says. To show his appreciation, he ordered pizza for the staff.
Although Jeff was told he would probably be in the hospital until August, he proved well enough to be released in early June. By then, another surprise had presented itself: Jeff had lost almost seventy pounds while in the hospital, dropping from three hundred twenty pounds to two hundred fifty.
“None of my clothes fit!” he says. “My sister said: ‘You look ridiculous! You need to go shopping!’”
Jeff had other things on his mind—namely, thanking the first responders who saved his life.
“All I could think about was meeting the firefighters, the EMS techs,” he says. “I am so grateful for what they did for me! They literally saved my life. I am alive because of them.”
On July 24, Jeff got his wish and made a visit to Windsor Fire Station 7.
“All I wanted to do was hug every person in that room,” he says.
For his own part, Captain Laz Sofikitis says: “We don’t always see happy endings like this. We appreciate Jeff’s gratitude. The fact is any of the fire crews would have done the same thing. We’re all trained the same. I just happened to be part of the arriving crew. It would have been the same outcome.”
Even more than half a year later, Jeff still goes through a wrenching emotional gauntlet speaking about the experience.
“My mom passed when I was a kid and I really think she was looking about for me,” he says. “I have a new outlook on life. My last name is ‘Anger’ but I’m always a happy dude! I tell everyone what they mean to me. I’m glad I can try and properly thank all those involved.”
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