Why all the negativity, people?
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a story about a woman visiting Elgin from out of town who helped a mother and young daughter out of a house fire on the city's east side.
I thought it was a great story that I just happened to learn about when I raced to the scene after hearing calls on the police scanners in the office. Reporters don't go out for every fire, but after this experience, I know I will.
Anyway, that's beside the point. The point is Nancy Roth just happened to be driving past on this particular day and noticed something amiss. Roth said she saw smoke, but the smoke was not coming from the chimney or the windows - places you might usually expect to see smoke. Instead, it was coming from between the walls and the roof.
Instead of just driving by, Roth stopped in the middle of the street and rushed over to evaluate the situation.
That's when she saw the mother and young girl coming out of the front door, the mother with severely burned feet. Roth took the child from the mother, while Jonathan Vicencio helped the woman safely down the front steps of the home.
It was an uncontroversial story with a happy ending. Yet, some who regularly post on stories on the Daily Herald Web site found a way to turn the story into a topic of contention by arguing neither Roth nor Vicencio should be considered heroes.
First of all, the story never once used the term 'hero.' Readers surmised that moniker for the pair on their own.
Second of all, why aren't they heroes? They helped a mother and a young child out of the burning house. Sure, they didn't run into the smoke or flames to reach the two people, but they were there to comfort, console and support the mother and young child.
They brought a chair from a neighbor's home so the mother could sit down until emergency crews arrived a few minutes later. I am sure she was in excruciating pain having run back into the house to find her child.
For those of you who questioned the mother's parenting, give her a break. Perhaps the mother was in the kitchen and the child was napping in a bedroom, out of the mother's sight. Just because she had to run out to get some fresh air doesn't mean she neglected her child and left her in the burning house. It was probably smart of the mother to get her lungs full of fresh air so she had the lung capacity to go back inside to reach the toddler.
Who knows, if she had continued to battle the smoke and flames without the breath of fresh air, we could have had a much more serious outcome. Mom might have collapsed from smoke inhalation and then Roth and Vicencio would not have known people were in the house.
I say everyone involved with this fire took heroic actions to ensure the lives of others were safe. Being a hero doesn't mean you jumped through flames - it's being supremely noble and self-sacrificing, according to Merriam-Webster.