Woman rescued from partially collapsed Iowa apartment building
Video captures the dramatic rescue of a woman from a partially collapsed apartment building in Iowa Credit: Quad City Fire Wire / LOCAL NEWS X /TMX
A Las Vegas, Nevada, man has introduced his two-year-old son to the firefighter who pulled him, the dad, from a burning home 23 years ago — inspiring him to become a firefighter himself.
"When I was 2 years old my house caught on fire & I was trapped inside, I ended up dying that day & this firefighter, Jeff Ohs, saved me from that building & brought [me] back to life," Xavier Lewis, 26, wrote in a tweet on May 30 that went viral.
"Now 23 years later, he is holding my 2-year-old son," he added. "I literally wouldn’t be here without him."
The two have stayed in touch over the years.
And over time, both even ended up moving to Las Vegas, where Lewis’ mother recently arranged a dinner for the families to reconnect.
Xavier Lewis (far right) introduced his two-year-old son to the man who saved his life when he was a baby, Jeff Ohs (far left). (Xavier Lewis)
That's when Lewis introduced his son Ezra, 2, to the man who saved his life when he himself was that age.
"Dude!!! You are a fighter through and through" Ohs replied to Lewis' tweet.
"And honestly you scared the s--- out of me that day. So blessed for the outcome. Love you guys," Ohs added.
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Ohs remembers the day in October 1999, he said.
He and his partner were out doing an inspection on the east side of their district in Long Beach, California, when the call came in.
Ohs rescued Lewis from a burning home in Long Beach, California, in October 1999. This image was snapped that day by neighbor Kendall Hardman, who captured Ohs running outside the burning home with the child is in arms. That child, now a grown man, is working to become a firefighter. (Kendall Hardman)
"We pulled up to a single story, single family residence with fire showing from the back of the residence," Ohs told Fox News Digital.
"We did our thing. We stretched lines and we made entry. We were able to knock the bulk of the fire out pretty quickly."
Ohs said there was no indication, in the chaos, that anyone was inside the house, but he decided to do a quick search of the home just in case.
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"I searched the front living room, front bedroom, bathroom and then back bedroom," Ohs said.
"And that's where I found Xavier."
"Someone saved my life and they didn’t even know me. I hope I can do the same for someone else."
Ohs said he saw a pile of clothes and stuffed animals and "dove into it."
"That’s when I came face-to-face with him," Ohs said. "It actually kind of shocked me. It was like, 'Holy s---, this is a kid.'"
Lewis, a toddler at the time, was on the floor and was unresponsive, according to Ohs.
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"I picked him up, ran outside with him and we did CPR and mouth-to-mouth on the front grass for I don't know how long, a minute or two, maybe," Ohs said.
Ohs told Fox News Digital that he and his crew performed life-saving procedures on two-year-old Lewis in 1999 to save his life after Lewis was trapped in a 1999 fire inside a home. (Kendall Hardman)
"He tried to take a breath, so we picked him up and ran him to the paramedic ambulance," Ohs added.
Photography student Kendall Hardman, who lived across the street at the time of the fire, happened to be home at the time of the incident.
He grabbed his camera and documented the tense moments as they unfolded — resulting in award-winning images later that year, Hardman said.
"When Jeff [Ohs] came out with that baby in his hands, I didn't even think about the police line," Hardman said.
Photography student Kendall Hardman captured the heroic moment on camera when Ohs was trying to save Lewis' life amid the blaze. (Kendall Hardman)
"I darted through the police line and posted up against a metal fence that was around the house, trying to get a shot," Hardman added. "I snapped off a few photos and I didn't think about it at the time, but I was right in between [Jeff’s] path to the ambulance."
Though he was in photographer mode, Hardman said he remembers Ohs’ courage that day.
"Jeff was doing CPR and there were no questions," Hardman said. "He wasn't like, ‘What do we do now?' He got up with him and started running with him to the ambulance."
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Lewis was then transported to the hospital.
"I'm actually able to appreciate my life and everything that everybody else has gone through for it."
"The first real big impact it had on me was when we got to the hospital and I passed him off to the hospital staff because [my] son is about six months younger than Xavier," Ohs said.
"So I called home and told my wife, ‘I need to hear Kyle's voice.’ She said, ‘I just put him down for a nap.’ And I said, ‘I don't care. Wake him up,’" Ohs recalled.
Due to smoke inhalation, young Lewis was in a coma.
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"They had to work on his breathing and try to prevent him from developing any other complications like aspiration or pneumonia or anything like that," Ohs remembered.
Ohs responded quickly by enacting CPR before rushing the young boy to the ambulance. (Kendall Hardman)
"He was not burned. It was all smoke related," Ohs said.
For the first day or two, Ohs said he called the hospital to check on Lewis.
"They transferred him from St. Mary's to Long Beach Memorial because Memorial had the pediatric unit," Ohs said.
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"I would go in, typically on my way into work or on my way home, and I'd just ask the nurses, ‘How's he doing?’"
Ohs met Lewis’ mom and dad at the hospital several times — and Ohs said they were very grateful to him.
When Lewis was finally released from the hospital, he got a special ride home.
"We actually brought him home in the fire engine," Ohs said. "But he had no idea what had happened because he was so little. We even went to an awards luncheon together, and Xavier and my son Kyle just played together underneath the table."
The families stayed in touch over the years.
Ohs said Lewis’ mom would bring him by the station when they were visiting family in Las Vegas at Christmas time.
Ohs (left) and the Lewis family stayed in contact after the rescue, even after the Lewis family moved from California to Las Vegas. (Xavier Lewis)
Lewis said he cannot remember the moment Ohs saved him, but his mother always made sure he knew the story.
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"My mom told me that he saved my life and everything," Lewis told Fox News Digital.
"She would always take me to go see him. I have newspaper articles and everything from the day it happened."
Ohs said he remembers seeing Lewis when he was about 16 or 17.
"I was like, 'This kid's getting big,' and then we kind of lost touch for a little bit," he said.
"Jeff is honestly just my hero. He is someone I look up to very much."
But when Ohs’ family then moved to Las Vegas, they reconnected first on social media and then in person — and Lewis brought his son with him.
"It was kind of overwhelming," Ohs said. "It's funny because his face just looks the same to me. But he is like 6’2" and he is a full-grown man with own family and child and stuff."
Now that he’s older and has a child of his own, Lewis said he can better process what happened 23 years ago.
"I'm actually able to appreciate my life and everything that everybody else has gone through for it," Lewis said.
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"Jeff is honestly just my hero. He is someone I look up to very much," Lewis said.
Ohs retired from fire service in 2021 and now serves as an emergency manager for University Police in Las Vegas.
When he thinks back on that day, he said he was "just doing his job."
Lewis is in the process of becoming a firefighter just like Ohs — and hopes to be able to save someone else's life one day if necessary, as Ohs did for him. (Xavier Lewis/Kendall Hardman)
"That's what we train to do," he said. "You go through hundreds of hours of training to learn to do something and that's all you want to do. You can sit in a classroom and you learn about something. All right, cool. You can try it on the training ground. All right, cool. But when you really get to go out and do it … well, that’s just the way cops and firemen are wired."
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As it turns out, Lewis has been inspired to pursue a career in firefighting himself.
He has completed 50 hours of coursework for wildland firefighting and will go to Oregon for field training.
"Then I'll be certified for wildfire and after I finish that I plan to do EMT training to get certified so I can be a firefighter," Lewis said.
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"Someone saved my life and they didn’t even know me. I hope I can do the same for someone else," he said.
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