In the dead of night last January, Jamie White heard his neighbor screaming for help through a window in her burning home. He didn’t think before acting.
“I grabbed my robe, and I ran out the door to get her,” The 44-year-old Detroiter said. “That’s what God told me to do.”
White’s neighbor, Lucille Williams, said she awoke around 3 a.m. Jan. 23 inside her home on West Parkway to the smell of smoke and alerted her roommate. They tried to exit, but were unable to navigate the intense smoke. After seeing fire in the kitchen and dining room, Williams said she found her way to her bedroom.
“The Holy Spirit told me to close the door, and I closed the door,” she told BridgeDetroit. “I lifted the window up, knocked the screen out and I just tried to call down. I started yelling and this big, giant (White), he pulled me out and he carried me like I was a baby.”
Williams and White recounted the January ordeal during a recognition ceremony at Tuesday’s Detroit City Council meeting. White was honored with a Spirit of Detroit award by District 7 City Council Member Denzel McCampbell for his heroic actions.
“Mr. White was a hero in saving two of his neighbors in a house fire,” said McCampbell, who lives several blocks away from White on the same street. “Jamie White didn’t just witness a tragedy, he acted. We thank you for being the kind of neighbor that every Detroiter deserves.”
White said he woke up that January evening to use the bathroom. His wife also woke up and then told him, “fire,” he said.
“I went running around the house, looking for the fire,” he said. “But then, I heard Miss Williams yelling ‘help’ out the window. Once I got out there, she was hanging out the side of the window, so I pulled her out, took her in my house, made sure she was safe and then I went back in for her roommate. It was black in there, black and (filled with) smoke.”
Detroit Fire Department Capt. James Plieth said first responders were on the scene that night in under five minutes. By that time, he said, White had already made two trips into the burning home and completed the rescues.
“Mr. White went into that room with no personal protective equipment – the things we (as firefighters) wear on a daily basis – he didn’t have any of that stuff on and risked his life to go in and save Miss Williams.”
White, 44, said he’s not sure what pushed him out the door so fast, but the conditions were worse than he anticipated.
“That’s why I thank God,” he said. “God told me to go get her.”
Williams and her roommate went to the hospital afterward for smoke inhalation. The house is a total loss, and Williams has since relocated to her daughter’s home a few blocks away. The cause of the fire has not been determined, Plieth said.
White, a father of two, was honored last month by the Detroit Fire Department for his life-saving actions with a Civilian Commendation.
On Tuesday, he urged others to “know your neighbors. One day, they might be the ones that save your life.”
Williams said that she considers White, his wife, Tatjana, and two young daughters, Oaklyn, 4, and Madison,1, like family.
“He came around, and I saw him coming, and I just thought ‘thank you lord,’” she said. “Thank you for sending Jamie, my guardian angel.”
