A courageous neighbor in Mississippi, Kennard Hodge, heroically used his bare hands to dig through the debris of a house fire, managing to save a 4-year-old boy who had become trapped, as revealed by recently released police bodycam footage.
Despite the chaos, Hodge navigated the wreckage where the fire had broken out, and the child was the last of six minors still inside the home in Edwards, Hinds County, on October 7, according to reports from WAPT.
Tragically, the boy suffered severe burns and was found stuck in a bedroom as flames engulfed the house.
Hodge was part of a group of neighbors who combed through the ruin while firefighters battled the intense blaze.
Dressed in a yellow shirt, this brave neighbor sifted through the debris, reached for the boy’s arm, and pulled him to safety.
“You got him?” a first responder asked. Hodge responded enthusiastically, “Yeah, I got him, got him, got him!”
Hodge explained his decision to act quickly was driven by a desire to give the child a “chance” at survival.
Unfortunately, the boy was not breathing when they found him and required CPR at the scene before being transported to the hospital.
A responding officer, trying to provide comfort, was heard saying, “Come on, little man… Hang in there bud,” on the bodycam footage.
In an update from the Hinds County Sheriff’s Office on October 8, they reported the child was in “very critical condition.” However, no further updates regarding his status have surfaced since then.
Terrence Crump, the police chief of Edwards, expressed that the rescue effort was nothing short of miraculous.
Additionally, five other children aged between 2 and 13 were saved from the fire. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation, with officials looking into how and where it started.
Investigators plan to interview several individuals linked to this incident as part of their inquiries.
