At 3:15 am on April 22, my brother, Quinn, woke up to his neighbor’s blaring smoke detectors. After waking up his girlfriend, Allison, they found themselves trapped inside, as the entire exterior of the three story building was engulfed in flames.  With the smoke quickly overtaking the condo, Quinn knew their only chance of survival was a fast exit through a back bedroom window more than 30 ft. above ground. They threw pillows and blankets out the window, and leaving all belongings behind, jumped out the second floor window. The heat was unbearable, the thick black smoke burned their eyes and throats and they just wanted to run far from the burning building but in a third story window, they saw the terror in the eyes of their trapped upstairs neighbors, and knew they were going nowhere. 

Quinn and Allison began yelling through the chaos to their neighbors to throw down more blankets, pillows and a mattress. Quinn coaxed the terrified couple to jump 50 ft. out of their smoke-filled home onto the mattress below.  In this life saving measure, both sustained multiple bone fractures. Unable to walk, Quinn helped them get away from the burning building, 200 yards out to the street. Allison, a second year Air Force medical student, administered first aid until paramedics arrived to transport them to a hospital. This story was humbly extracted in bits and pieces out of Quinn and Allison, who by anyone’s definition, can be called true heroes in the face of danger.

As if losing their home and everything they own is not stressful enough, the timing of this tragic accident coincides with preparations for an upcoming deployment for Quinn, a Navy search & rescue helicopter pilot and Allison’s orders to continue her medical training in Nevada next week.

If you would like to help Quinn and Allison begin to put their lives back together, at least in the short term, with a financial contribution of any amount, it would be so greatly appreciated. Though they escaped with the thing most precious to them (each other), the only other thing salvaged was the clothing on their backs.