Ernest Beauparland

Ernest Beauparland helped save Colin G. Jackson from burning, Fairhaven, Massachusetts, February 3, 2020. Jackson, 83, was in second-floor living quarters of a three-story building when fire broke out on the third floor and spread to the second. Jackson was non-ambulatory and used a wheelchair. Family members moved him from bed, but they were unable to move him down the stairway. Beauparland, 66, retired laborer, was driving nearby and saw the fire. He stopped and ran into the building and up the stairway to the hallway, where there was black smoke. Another man ran into the building and up the stairway, joining him. Jackson was dragged to the top of the stairway, where flames were on the ceiling, and Beauparland and the other man grasped him underneath his legs. The two men moved, backward, down the stairs, holding Jackson, as flames spread to the stairway’s ceiling. Once Beauparland and the other man had moved Jackson to the bottom of the stairway he was taken outside as flames extended from the shattered second-floor windows above the door, and glass, debris, and ashes fell onto the men. Jackson and Beauparland both inhaled smoke; they recovered.