Heroic Sun Parlor Home duo rescues woman from house fire in Leamington

Kevin Soulliere and Dylan Montague did not wake up last Monday figuring they would be hailed as heroes by nightfall on social media. 

Selfless community heroes never do.

But heroes, indeed, is what the two Sun Parlor Home employees are, after they rushed into a burning home in Leamington and rescued a young woman who had been sleeping in the basement, as smoked rapidly filled the building.

It all went down in less than a minute, just seconds before smoke became too suffocating and before heat from fast-spreading flames blocked the path to safety from downstairs.

Soulliere is the Manager of Building Services at Sun Parlor Home, where he has worked for 35 years. Montague has been a Maintenance Worker at the Home for the past four years. Both were heralded by co-workers and praised by County of Essex leaders for their quick-thinking, selfless actions in an incredibly stressful situation.

It was just after 4 p.m. on Sept. 15 and Soulliere and Montague were on their way back to Sun Parlor Home in their white County of Essex pickup truck, after picking up some clothes hangers from Canadian Tire for the Home’s laundry. Soulliere could not make the trip alone. He cannot drive as his right foot has been locked in a walking boot for the past few weeks to allow a stress fracture to heal.

Not even 60 seconds after leaving Canadian Tire, they were shocked to see flames shooting out of a red-bricked home on Warren Avenue.

Montague slammed the brakes, shifted into reverse and quickly drove over to Warren Avenue. Before he could even put the vehicle into park, Soulliere jumped out and – protective foot boot and all – hobbled as fast as he could to the porch of the house. Montague followed right behind him and they learned that a person was sleeping in the basement. 

There was no time to talk about whether to rush into the burning home. Soulliere and Montague just went in.

“Neither of us said anything to each other. It was all too fast. We didn’t think about it. We just ran in,” Soulliere said.

Even though it was a small ranch-style house, not knowing where to locate the stairs to the basement delayed the rescue effort. Each man began searching while also checking closets and confirming there was no one else on the main floor.

“We were just yelling and screaming into every room, that there was a fire and to get out,” Montague said.

“With my boot I was afraid to get stuck (in the basement),” Soulliere said, “so I went down the stairs only to the first landing. And I just kept yelling, ‘IF ANYBODY’S IN THE BASEMENT YOU NEED TO GET OUT, BECAUSE THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE!!!’”

At that moment, Montague could see that conditions inside the house were fast deteriorating, with flames growing in the kitchen only about six feet from the top of the stairway to the basement.

“I’m shouting down the stairs, like, ‘Kevin, we need to hurry!’ … The smoke wasn’t super bad when we entered, but by the time we were running out, it was.”

A woman who had been sleeping heard Soulliere’s warnings and clambered up the stairs. Montague had the presence of mind to ask the woman if there might be any pets in the house. There weren’t.

Soulliere then pointed to the front door, and out the trio went, coughing and gagging and shielding themselves from the heat, as the flames grew higher and hotter and smoke filled all corners of the house.

How much time had transpired from the time they’d entered the burning house until they exited, all unharmed?

“I’d say 45 seconds to a minute,” Montague said. “It felt like an eternity. We were chased out by billowing clouds of smoke.”

Not even 10 seconds after rushing out the front door, Montague said, he turned around on the front lawn of the home and took a photo of billowing smoke.

“I didn’t even know he did that, at the time,” Soulliere said. “It kind of freaked me out, to be honest … when he showed me that photo a couple days later. Now I know why we were choking when we got out.”

That’s not the only thing Soulliere keeps revisiting about their bold rush into that burning Warren Avenue house.

“I know from work training sessions, and kids all learn in school, how fast fires grow,” Soulliere said. “But you know something? They’re right. It was scary fast.”

Leamington Fire crews arrived minutes after the rescue to put out the blaze. While most of the roof and most walls did not burn through, the house is gutted inside.

Soulliere and Montague returned to work at Sun Parlor Home as if nothing had happened. But for the rest of their respective shifts, co-worker after co-worker went up to each and asked, incredulously, as Soulliere put it:

“Why do you smell like a campfire?”

Answer: To save a life.