Friday, June 18, 1999
Teen kept fire from being tragedy
Boy, 16, shooed family then went back for puppies
BY PHILLIP PINA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A Madisonville family whose lives were devastated by fire Thursday afternoon were cheered by an act of heroism.
Their home was heavily damaged by the two-alarm blaze that engulfed it. Their belongings were ruined.
But they all made it out alive.
And they found comfort in 16-year-old Steven Poindexter II.
“It could have been a lot worse,” said Mary Hughes, his grandmother and the owner of the charred home at 5530 Dunning Place, where she lived with several of her children and grandchildren.
“But we made it through this, thanks to my grandson.”
Steven had spent the day at a nearby pool with his relatives. When they returned to the two-story home at the end of a quiet street, they rushed upstairs to play computer games. Steven went down to the first-floor kitchen for a drink about 5 p.m., Ms. Hughes said.
That's when he saw the fire.
The blaze apparently had started in the kitchen, according to Cincinnati District 4 Fire Chief Jay Boeing.
While the family said they had been having electrical problems, the cause remains under investigation, he said.
Keeping his calm, Steven rushed through the house, ordering everybody out, Ms. Hughes said.
Once his seven cousins and other relatives were safely out of the house, he entered the burning building to rescue two puppies in the basement. A third dog perished.
But Steven's heroics came with a painful price. He suffered second-degree burns to his legs and to his right arm.
He was taken to University Hospital, where he was being treated Thursday night.
“I'm very proud of him,” said his father, Steven Poindexter. “But I didn't want to see him get hurt.”
The family was trying to cope with Steven's injuries Thursday night, and find a new place to stay.
Friends and neighbors offered consoling words. And the American Red Cross was arranging temporary shelter at a hotel for Ms. Hughes and about a dozen family members.
The blaze caused an estimated $65,000 damage to Ms. Hughes' home, in which she has lived 27 years.
When firefighters arrived, heavy black smoke was rising from the building, Chief Boeing said.
The blaze was so hot it melted portions of the siding of a neighboring home about 30 feet away.
Damage to the second house is estimated at $2,000.
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