“My baby! My baby! Somebody do something!”
Those were the spine-chilling words that Delaware State News photographer Gary Emeigh heard Phyllis Bright screaming as he arrived at a house fire in Capitol Park near Dover Air Force Base before volunteers from the Dover Fire Department arrived on the scene in south Dover back on Sept. 28, 1968.
Mrs. Bright’s stovetop had a problem that ignited the kitchen and set the house on fire.
Laying somewhere within the confines of the home as it was being enveloped by hot flames and deep plumes of black, heavy smoke, was Mrs. Bright’s 3-week-old baby, Marlo, who could be heard crying inside the fiery scene but could not be located.
It was a terrifying moment some 50 years ago that impacted the lives of everyone involved — from the family to the firefighters to the photographer.
It also served as a life-changing experience for Phyllis Marsh, previously Mrs. Bright, that has made Mother’s Day mean so much more in the half century that has passed since that day.
That’s because it all had a happy ending — her baby girl was eventually found and saved by those heroic firefighters.