Remembering a hero

"I wanted to honour him," Mr. Edison said. "That man did save my life."

According to a report by the Botwood Fire Department, at 1:50 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 1983, the firefighters arrived on the scene of a fire at Botwood Junior High School.

At the time, there was extensive smoke outside the building, but no visible sign of fire.

Fire Chief Elmo Waterman sent two firefighters, equipped with Scott Air Packs, into the building to investigate.

After the corridor was cooled with water, the men noted fire could be seen in the canteen, with small amounts also visible running up the outside of the open canteen door, along the corridor ceiling and over the gym entrance doors.

The fire was fought from two angles, and was brought under control. Then it was noticed some fire was still burning inside the petition walls of the gym area.

Firefighters used a ladder to put themselves into position to extinguish the remaining hotspots.

The chief decided to have a look for himself and when he reached the top of the ladder he asked for the hose.

"I was three rungs up on the ladder, we were in there about an hour and we were totally exhausted," Mr. Edison remembered. "Len Mills was on the floor holding the ladder and he said 'Eric come on back down. I'll bring the hose up to the chief.' I came back down the ladder. He went up and when he got half way up the ceiling caved in and he got trapped. If I kept going up I would not have survived because I had a breathing apparatus on my back that would have split me in two like a salt fish. So I survived and he took the brunt."

The official report on the junior high school fire of 1983 by the Botwood Fire Department confirmed what Mr. Edison said, as a note on the report stated "Eric Edison, wearing a S.C.B.A. tank on his back, was three or four rungs up the ladder when Len said 'Give me the hose, I'll bring it up to Elmo.' Eric returned and Len climbed up the ladder. Without Len's action, Eric would have been instantly killed."

The report goes on to say when Mr. Mills was about to give the chief the hose, the ceiling started to give away. The chief yelled, "the ceiling is caving in."

"When it came down it folded like a sheet of paper," Mr. Edison said.

Some of the gym ceiling was burned away, approximately 20-25 feet long, 2-3 feet from the wall. The burned out opening of the ceiling passed over the chief, however, it knocked him against the wall, snapping his right leg.

At the time of the incident, media, including the Advertiser, reported that the roof of the school had caved in, however, it was the ceiling that collapsed, the roof stayed intact.

"One guy ran for the door and got hit on his heel," Mr. Edison recalled. "I ran back the other way because I knew I didn't have time to make it to the main door, and I got hit in the back of the head and I never did find my helmet."

Mr. Mills, with his foot still in the openings of the ladder three or four steps from the bottom, was swept by the ceiling, landing 20 feet from the gym wall.

"He was trapped under the ceiling, we couldn't get to him and there were people that really tore their hands to pieces trying to get to him," Mr. Edison said. "We couldn't walk on the ceiling because we would have crushed him, so we had to literally tear the ceiling apart. He was in the middle of the floor, underneath the ceiling with all this weight, and he couldn't expand his lungs and eventually suffocated."

Mr. Edison said they eventually pulled Mr. Mills from the rubble and while Corporal Ron Cook of the Grand Falls RCMP, Assistant Fire Chief Bill Butler and firefighter Ron Chafe were working on Mr. Mills - applying mouth-to-mouth and heart massage - Mr. Edison went over to his friend and pulled open his eye lid. He said Mr. Mills' eyes at that time were pure grey.

The fire department's report said at that time, Mr. Mills was "bluish purple in colour, not breathing and no heart beat. Also, his eyes were dilated."

"You talk to any doctor and they will tell you that when your pupil is gone to that stage, you have been dead for awhile," Mr. Edison said. "It wasn't the white I was looking at, this was the pupil, dilated. I never ever want to do it again. It affected me for days. You are looking at nothing."

According to the report, after two minutes of medical attention, Mr. Mills had a heartbeat and we was transferred to hospital by ambulance.

"He was 41 days unconscious," Mr. Edison said. "He finally recovered in St. John's. He lived until 1997, but his way of life never ever came back to what it was when he went to that fire. The family never did get their father back, and the wife never got her husband back. He lived for another 14 years, but it was no standard of what I call life. He used to have seizures and he had to walk with a walker."

Fire Chief Waterman had a broken leg and he had to be rushed to Grand Falls hospital, but not before he knew Mr. Mills was out of the rubble.