- Tyler Doohan, 8, alerts relatives to an early-morning fire, and 6 escape
- He returns to the mobile home to help his disabled grandfather but dies in effort
- The single-wide trailer had no working smoke detector, fire chief says
(CNN) — In his final moments, 8-year-old Tyler Doohan managed to rescue six people — including two younger children — from a burning mobile home in upstate New York, authorities said.
A last-ditch effort, however, to save his disabled grandfather cost the boy his life. His body was found next to his grandfather, whom Tyler considered a best friend.
“It makes me really proud, it really does, but I just want him back,” Tyler’s mother, Crystal Vrooman, told CNN affiliate WHAM.
Tyler, an East Rochester resident, was staying at the home of relatives in the nearby town of Penfield on Sunday night when he noticed a fire in the single-wide trailer, said Penfield Fire Chief Chris Ebmeyer.
As firefighters and sheriff’s deputies responded to 4:45 a.m. emergency call, Tyler was able to wake six other people in the small trailer, including two more children, ages 4 and 6, the fire chief said.
Then Tyler went back into the blaze to help his grandfather, who was disabled and would have been unable to get out of the home on his own, Ebmeyer said.
“By that time, the fire had traveled to the back of the trailer,” said Ebmeyer. “Unfortunately they both succumbed to heat and smoke.”
The pair were found together on a bed in the back room. It appeared that the boy was trying to lift his grandfather from the bed when he was overcome by the smoke and fire, the fire chief said. Tyler and his grandfather were like best friends, Vrooman said.
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