Tuesday, March 16, 1999

Mystery hero asks: What's all the fuss?

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Man saved couple from burning house

BY MIRIAM SMITH
The Cincinnati Enquirer

'Thanks to you, I still have a mother." Diane Ives, right, tells Bob Barnes. His granddaughter, Amanda Wood, is at left with friend Charly Cotton. (Dick Swaim photo) | ZOOM |

        MADISON TOWNSHIP — It's a good thing Bob Barnes overslept Sunday.

        Mr. Barnes was running late to pick up his granddaughter from a 4-H sleep-over at the YMCA in Middletown.

        As he was driving back to his Preble County home about 6:45 a.m. with his granddaughter, Amanda Wood, 14, and her friend, Charly Cotton, they noticed smoke billowing from a garage at 11510 Preble County Line Road. If he had gone earlier, he might have missed it, he told The Cincinnati Enquirer Monday.

        “I just come by and seen smoke coming out of the garage, and I said, "Gosh, that house is on fire,' ” said Mr. Barnes, 65, of nearby Germantown.

        Amanda and Charly ran across the street to alert neighbors to call 911 while he hurried to see whether anyone was inside the burning house.

        “It was real bad, and I couldn't hardly find the door,” Mr. Barnes said. “It happened so fast, I don't remember how far I went into the house.”

        But he does remember grabbing hold of Eva Boggs and pulling her to safety. He thinks her husband, Ivan Boggs, was right behind her and was holding his wife's hand at the time.

        The couple, who are in their mid-70s, escaped unhurt, ex cept for Mr. Boggs' cut foot.

        After making sure they were safe and moving their truck away from the flames, Mr. Barnes left. He figured he had done all he could do.

        So he didn't expect all the fuss that came Monday when people learned he was Sunday's hero. After all, he can't imagine how anyone would react any differently.

        “I think people here in a farm community are basically a little closer,” Mr. Barnes said. “If cows had come out in the road, I would have stopped to

        help them. I think anybody would have done it. What little bit I did, I was glad to help.”

        But the Boggs family doesn't think what he did was just “a little bit.” Some family members spoke to his wife, Cledith Barnes, on the phone Sunday night after she got their names from a Dayton TV station and called them.

        “We're really grateful to him,” said Barb Boggs, daughter-in-law of the couple. “They probably wouldn't have made it out if it wasn't for him.”

        Jessica Miller, the Boggses' granddaughter, said, “There were no words” to describe what she felt Monday.

        “This guy actually stopped and he actually went inside, and he risked his life to save my grandma. She might not have got out if it wasn't for him,” she said.

        The Boggses' $125,000 home burned to the ground. The cause of the fire was unknown, a fire official said Sunday, and further information was unavailable Monday.

        The couple lost their home, a van, antiques and 10 beloved pet cockatiels, one of whom would faithfully follow Mrs. Boggs around the house.

        The Barneses received a visit Monday night from one of Mr. Boggs' daughters, during which the family's appreciation was expressed after they finally found their mysterious hero.

        “She said, "If you hadn't gotten them out, they wouldn't have made it,” Mrs. Barnes said.

       

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