OKTIBBEHA COUNTY — Even in the firefighting profession, Oktibbeha County Fire Services Coordinator Patrick Warner said it’s rare to need to rescue someone from a burning structure.
It’s rarer still to do it in street clothes while off duty outside of your home jurisdiction.
Those circumstances didn’t stop Stephen Boren when he witnessed a house fire in Eupora on July 29.
Warner and the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors honored Boren for those heroics Monday during a board meeting at the chancery courthouse.
Boren, a 23-year veteran volunteer of the District 3 Fire Department in Maben who also is employed with Starkville Fire Department, does construction work on the side when he is off duty. On July 29, he was working on a house in Eupora when he saw the city fire department responding to an active house fire on Elm Street.
He ran over to assist and learned an incapacitated man was trapped inside as flames were engulfing the house. EFD had no gear to lend Boren, and there was no time to wait.
“I had shorts on,” he told supervisors during Monday’s meeting. “It was hot.”
Boren entered the house, pulled the man to safety, then helped extinguish the fire. The man fully recovered from the ordeal.
“It was my first live rescue,” Boren told The Dispatch. “There was really no time to think about it. My training kicked in. If we had waited another minute, (the man) would not have survived.”
A month or two passed before Warner learned what happened. Even then, he heard it from someone else — which he said seems about right for the unassuming Boren.
“He comes in, does his work, doesn’t complain and always has a good attitude,” Warner told The Dispatch. “His character really defines what it is to be a true professional firefighter.”
On Monday, as Warner read the proclamation, Boren stood before the board with his head tilted down slightly, seeming to brace against the embarrassment of the public spectacle. He left the board room immediately after the reading, and the supervisors had to get Warner to chase him down and bring him back for a group photo.
“None of us want to be recognized really,” Boren told The Dispatch. “(Warner’s) been twisting my arm to do this for a while.”
Still, he was glad to help, though he summed up the experience very simply.
“I was just in the right place at the right time,” he said.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 40 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
