Des Plaines recognizes firefighters, boy for saving family from fire

Angie Alvarado knew she could count on her 10-year-old nephew, “Benji,” to know what to do in an emergency.

Alvarado was in the basement of her family’s two-story Des Plaines townhouse Dec. 23 with her mother, her 15-month-old son, and nephew, Benjamin Bansuelos, when fire broke out on the stairway leading upstairs.

A gasoline can left on the stairs had knocked over and the liquid flowed down the steps. The fumes were ignited by a water heater in the basement, authorities said.

Alvarado immediately asked her nephew to run out of the house and get help.

Benjamin managed to escape the basement despite his pants catching fire as he ran up the stairs. All the while he kept yelling for his family to get out. Once outside, Benjamin applied the stop, drop and roll technique he had learned in school to put out the fire on his pants, and then called 911 from a cellphone, Alvarado said.

“I knew he would respond that way,” she said. “I trusted him.”

The Plainfield Elementary School fifth grader was awarded a certificate of recognition at Monday night’s Des Plaines city council meeting for acting quickly and saving his family from the fire.

“What a remarkable young man,” Des Plaines Fire Chief Alan Wax said. “What a shining example to us all.”

Benjamin, now 11 years old, teared up as he received the certificate. He said later that he was thinking about that night and how close he was to losing his family.

Alvarado, who also managed to escape the basement, said she tried to extinguish the fire herself with a wet towel, while her mother and son were still downstairs. But the flames surged and she couldn’t get back to the basement, she said.

When firefighters arrived at the home in the 1300 block of Fargo Avenue it was inaccessible from the street since it is situated far from the nearest parking lot. Bystanders were screaming that members of the Alvarado family were still trapped in the basement, Wax said.

Unable to get their fire engine’s hose to the blaze because of the distance, firefighter Michael Copeland and firefighter/paramedic Robert Prieto used a water fire extinguisher to reduce the flames in the home’s stairway. The two firefighters then entered the basement through the burning stairs under considerable personal risk to rescue the family, Wax said.

The firefighters searched the basement and found Alvarado’s mother unconscious, carried her up the stairs and handed her off to firefighter Mike Iorio, firefighter/paramedic Russell Olish and firefighter Brian Carmicheal, who carried the victim out of the building, Wax said.

Copeland and Prieto returned to the basement and found Alvarado’s son, also unconscious. They carried the child up and handed him to Iorio.

All five firefighters received lifesaving awards Monday, while the remaining firefighters on duty that night who worked the fire also were recognized.

“Their work at this incident was in the highest traditions of the fire service during some very difficult circumstances,” Wax said.