Cliff Buchan
News Editor

No turnout gear. No air masks. No time. Just instincts.

Deputy Fire Chief Bruce Wightman had little time to think on June 27 as he was the first Forest Lake firefighter to arrive at a burning home where two kids were trapped inside. Thanks to Wightman’s fast actions, both kids were saved and were expected to be out of the hospital this week.

“It happened incredibly fast,” Wightman said this week, looking back on the call to 97 Lee St. at 1 a.m. Wightman, following department procedure for a fire commander, went directly to the scene.

“I didn’t have time to think about it,” he said. “It’s reaction. You look at (the situation). Evaluate it. Make a decision and go with it.”

The deputy fire chief was told at the scene at least one of the kids was trapped in a rear bedroom of the mobile home at Woodlund Mobile Home Park.

Using a police night stick, Wightman broke the door window, reached in and unlocked the door and went for the kids. Thick smoke was within six inches of the floor and it was pitch black, he said.

“It was the urgency of getting them out,” he said. “I crawled in and reached out.”

In the hallway some eight feet from the door, Wightman touched a small arm. He grabbed on to the child and pulled the youngster outside where Forest Lake police officer Shawn Lafferty was waiting.

Wightman went back a second time and found the second child and the rescue was repeated.

Eight days later, Nathan Jacobs, 6, and sister Hannah Jacobs, 4, are safe and out of Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis where they were airlifted suffering from smoke inhalation.

Forest Lake Fire Chief Gary Sigfrinius said the mother of the two kids, Tracey LaBossiere, 38, had managed to escape the burning home. Another son, Andrew, 17, was not home at the time of the fire, the chief said.

Sigfrinius said the investigation, with the help of a state fire marshal, is continuing to probe the cause of the blaze. It is believed the fire started in the mother’s bedroom where she was sleeping with Nathan.

Sigfrinius said after the mother was awakened by the fire, she and the boy left the bedroom but became separated as she went for a pan of water to fight the fire.

The two children were unconscious and had precious little time remaining if Wightman had not acted, Sigfrinius said. Nathan was unconscious and breathing while his sister was unconscious but not breathing after being carried from the burning home.

Sigfrinius said his firefighters were “flying high” after seeing the rescue of the two kids and quickly knocked down the fire.

“It’s a great day to be a member of the Forest Lake Fire Department,” the chief said.

Wightman, who will mark his 30th year of fire service next month, said he was overwhelmed by all the media attention but glad he took action. “As a firefighter everything you do is a calculated risk.”

Sigfrinius said the home was probably a total loss. A fund for the family has been established at TCF Bank.

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