The alert flashed over Brockton Firefighter John McLaughlin’s phone: there was a reported building fire at 63 Woodward Avenue, just a few streets away from where he was driving on his way to work.
He took a left turn onto the street, then noticed the handicapped access ramp attached to the front of the building in question. That’s when his instincts, honed over his 19 years on the department, took over.
“I saw the ramp, and it sparked my training. I thought ‘There might be someone in there who can’t get out,’” McLaughlin told The Enterprise Wednesday evening. “When I opened the door up, I saw her laying there in the living room on a hospital bed.”
He also saw flames crawling up the wall next to her to the ceiling. “My instinct was to get her out of there before it extended to the sheets, her clothing and her,” he said.