TEEN RESCUES BROTHER, 6, FROM BONFIRE
According to Sue Peck, her youngest son, Jacob, was attempting to get out of a chair while seated near a bonfire when the chair collapsed and he began to fall toward the flames. Jacob's 16-year-old brother, Shea, didn't hesitate. He jumped in, grabbed his brother, and ran to a nearby river to put out the flames.
"He had just taken a CPR First Aid class at his high school through JROTC," Sue Peck said "He just reacted. He didn't wait for a responce."
The accident occured Sunday, July 2nd, at a perimitive camp site near Lumberman's Monument, Au Sable River Valley in Oscoda County. At the time Sue and her husband, Joe Peck, had gone to get ice as the fire was dying down. they returned to the site at about 9:20 p.m. just after the incident.
"it was phenomenal," Peck said. "everyone in our family is calling shea a hero for responding the way he needed to."
They took Jacob to the hospital, St. Joseph Health System in tawas City. Hours later the boy was air-lifted and taken to the University of Michigan Center to have his burns treated. The Pecks drove to Ann Arbor, arriving around 3:30 a.m.
"He's been here ever scince," she said from the hospital.
She said Shea, a franklin High School junior, was "shaken up" by the incident but he knows he made a difference and saved his brother's life.
"It's very scary," Peck said. "All we can do is thank God it wasn't worse. He's alive. We will get through it. We're all very proud of Shea for what he did."
Joe Peck agreed: "I'm very appreciative of what my son has learned through JROTC."
As for Jacob, his mother said, "he worships his older brother."
While he isn't a fan of doctors, needles, or having to keep his leg straight and stabilized each night, she said he is recovering.