Nicholas L. Bostic

Nicholas L. Bostic rescued a 6-year-old girl from burning , Lafayette, Indiana, July 11, 2022. An 18-year-old woman; her sisters, ages 13, 20 months and the 6-year-old; and another girl, 13, were asleep inside a two-story house at night, unaware a fire had started on the porch near the front door, then spread to the living room and, eventually, bedrooms above. Bostic, 25, pizza delivery driver, was driving nearby and responded after noticing the house in flames. Bostic entered the home through the back door and called out to determine if anyone was inside. Hearing nothing, he entered the home and, as he went upstairs, saw the woman, with the toddler, and the two 13-year-olds outside an upstairs bedroom. He led them the rest of the way downstairs and out of the house through the back door. Once outside, Bostic learned the 6-year-old was still inside, her location unknown. He re-entered through the back door, ran up the stairs, and frantically searched the second-floor bedrooms as conditions deteriorated rapidly after an explosion on the porch. Bostic, because of the worsening conditions, considered exiting through a second-floor window before he heard the girl’s cries and followed them back downstairs into thick, black smoke and blistering heat. He located her near the living room, picked her up, and ran back up the stairs. He entered another bedroom, filled with smoke and some flames, and punched out a window with his bare fist. With the girl in his arms, Bostic jumped outside to the ground. The 6-year-old suffered an injury to her leg from the broken glass; she recovered. Bostic was hospitalized for three days and initially in critical condition for smoke inhalation, first- and second-degree burns, and a complex laceration to his right forearm; he recovered.