Family, fire chief rekindle bond
A near-tragic fire took place nearly 12 years ago in Youngstown.
YOUNGSTOWN — Boardman Township resident Toni Peake and city Fire Chief John O’Neil recently spent time celebrating an educational milestone in the life of one young man — a person to whom she gave life and he gave a second chance at life.
Peake, her son, 18-year-old Terry Walker, O’Neil and other guests ate dinner and socialized at Walker’s high school graduation party earlier this month. The bond between Peake, Walker and O’Neil, however, begins much earlier than high school graduation.
The story begins 12 years ago in September when someone set Peake’s Youngstown home on fire. When the fire was set, Peake was inside with Walker, who was 6 at the time, her daughter, a young nephew and a young niece.
The family ran out a side door. Some members broke a window and jumped to safety. Everyone made it out except one person.
“When I looked around for my son, he just wasn’t there. I was looking and like, ‘Where is he, where is he.’ I couldn’t see, and I couldn’t breathe,” said Peake.
Peake made it to the outside of the house and saw that O’Neil, not yet appointed to fire chief, had made it to the burning house. He was first on the scene and did not have the proper hose or backup firefighters to fight the raging blaze.
According to O’Neil, Peake frantically told him her “baby” was still inside the house likely somewhere upstairs. He made his way up the steps and on all fours began searching for the boy.
“This was one of those once-in-a-lifetime rescues where everything just fell into place. I don’t believe he had very many minutes left in that fire,” said O’Neil.
While crawling along the floor, O’Neil said he could feel his shoulders starting to burn from the heat. The smoke was thick, and he could see virtually nothing.
“It had crossed my mind that I might not make it out of there myself,” he said.
Just as he began to think the worst, however, O’Neil felt something move. He realized that the boy was wrapped in a blanket and hiding under a bed not far from where O’Neil was positioned in the upstairs bedroom.
O’Neil grabbed Walker from under the bed, put his oxygen-producing mask on the boy and followed the voices of other firefighters, who had now arrived at the house, down the stairs and to safety.
O’Neil said he doesn’t like to sound as if he is bragging about the situation. He said these things are what safety forces do on a daily basis around the world.
“People sleep comfortably at night and don’t really realize these things are going on,” he said.
Peake said Walker spent time in the hospital battling smoke inhalation but realizes that is nothing compared to what could have happened had he not been pulled out of the building in time. She is eternally grateful to O’Neil.
“I think he is a wonderful person. I will never forget him as long as I live,” she said. “Every time I see him on TV, people just say, ‘We know, we know he saved your son.’ Youngstown is blessed to have him and all those guys [in the department].”
jgoodwin@vindy.com