A Mississippi man risked his life by entering the burning remains of a neighbor’s home and digging through smoldering debris to save a trapped four-year-old boy.
Police body-camera video captured neighbor Kennard Hodge using his bare hands to pull the unconscious child from the wreckage.
The fire broke out at about 10 p.m. on October 7 in Edwards, roughly 30 miles west of Jackson, the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office said. Six children were inside the house when the blaze started.
When deputies and firefighters arrived, the home was already engulfed in flames. Several neighbors had begun trying to get the children out.
Neighbors managed to rescue five children—ages 13, nine, three, two and two—but the four-year-old remained trapped inside, authorities said.
Deputies searched around the burning structure and spotted the boy inside a bedroom through a window. Hodge immediately moved in to help.
Body-camera footage obtained by WAPT shows a deputy looking into the home through the window as Hodge dug through the debris, trying to reach the child.
“Got him! Got him!” Hodge repeatedly shouted as he pulled the boy free by the arm, lifted him up and handed him through the window to the deputy.
Police body-camera footage shows Mississippi neighbor Kennard Hodge digging through the wreckage of a burning home to rescue a trapped four-year-old boy.
In the chaotic, blurry video, Hodge can be seen tugging the boy’s arm to free him from the debris before passing the child to the deputy recording the scene.
“All I wanted to do was to get the baby out, so he could have a chance,” Hodge later told WAPT.
Bystanders cheered and applauded as the deputy pulled the boy through the window and placed him on the ground outside the burning house.
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The child was unconscious, prompting deputies to begin CPR immediately. “Come on, little man… Hang in there, bud,” one deputy could be heard saying.
A second deputy administered oxygen. The boy eventually began breathing, although he remained unconscious.
The footage shows burns on the child’s body before he was placed on a stretcher and taken to a hospital.
The boy survived because of the combined efforts of neighbors and first responders, but the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office listed his condition as very critical on October 8.
Authorities have not released a further update on his condition, though reports indicate that he remains alive.
“This was nothing short of a miracle,” Edwards Police Chief Terrence Crump told WAPT.
Hodge helped save the boy’s life and later said, “All I wanted to do was to get the baby out, so he could have a chance.” He is pictured outside the burned remains of the home.
Police said six children—ages 13, nine, four, three, two and two—were inside the house when the fire began. Neighbors and first responders rescued all of them.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, and the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services has been notified and is assisting with the case, according to the sheriff’s office.
The office also said that investigators would be interviewing ‘several individuals connected to the incident.’
The Hinds County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that it ‘commends the neighbors and responding deputies whose courageous actions saved multiple lives during this tragic event.’
The town of Edwards held an event on Saturday evening to honor the neighbors and community members who risked their lives to help the rescue effort and save six children.