BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Two neighbors are being credited with saving the life of a 5-year-old boy whose father was killed in a fire at their Buffalo apartment.
Officials say the fire broke out around 6 p.m. Thursday in a second-story apartment on Buffalo’s east side.
Fire officials say Lewis Varner Jr. and his son Dwayne rescued the boy from the blaze that killed his father, 56-year-old Tony Mills.
Lewis Varner tells local media that he saw the boy standing in a second-floor window and told him to jump so Varner could catch him. But the boy said he was afraid, so the Verners got a ladder from their home and rescued the boy.
Firefighters pulled Mills out of the burning home, but he was pronounced dead at Erie County Medical Center.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
