A Father’s Fast Acting Saves Children

One Ocean Springs family lost everything in a destructive house fire, but thanks to a father’s quick thinking his children are safe.
News 25’s Hank Davis caught up with him this afternoon and brings us the story.
In Ocean Springs, a tragedy is narrowly avoided as a family’s home begins to burn when a space heater causes an electrical fire and a father jumps into the flames to rescue his family. Twenty-eight year-old Clarence Battle says when he walked in to find his girlfriend and children in danger he didn’t even have time to think, he just reacted. “I asked her where the kids were. She told me one was in the room and one was in the living room. Immediately grabbed the one that was in the living room, ran to the backroom, I couldn’t see nothing. Smoke was everywhere. I patted on the bed and he wasn’t on the bed. The fire was around the other door so I had to run through the fire. I jumped in there and grabbed him and tossed him out the window.”
“Like I said, there was smoke in there. I couldn’t see anything,” said Battle, “But my dog was right here and he was on my shoulder so I picked him up and threw him out the window.”
Battle was able to clear the house, but in the process he received burns on both arms and hands and even that couldn’t stop him from trying to save his house. “I tried to put it out with the hose a little bit because I didn’t think it was that big, but it was. It was all in the attic. That’s where it started was in the attic.”
Battle’s house and belongings are completely destroyed and he won’t be able to work again until his burns heal. If you want to help his family, you can drop off donations at Ocean Springs Fire Department.