VA Firefighter Recalls Dramatic Child Rescues

VIRGINIA BEACH -- Hot, smokey and dark.

That's what firefighter Mitch Riley remembers about the room where he rescued a 2-year-old girl and a 5-year-old boy.

He and the rest of the Engine 7 crew got a call shortly before 2 a.m. on Tuesday. A mobile home in the County View Mobile Home park on Spartan Street was on fire. The crew arrived in minutes.

On Friday afternoon at Fire Station 7, he told this story.

"A police officer on scene was yelling and telling us that two children were trapped inside," Riley said.

Riley followed a police officer over to a bedroom window where the children were trapped. He climbed a ladder and looked through the window.

"I popped my head up, looked through the window just to see if there was anybody right there at the window that I could immediately grab," he said.

He couldn't see because the smoke was so bad. Half the trailer was already engulfed in flames at that point, he said.

"It had nowhere else to go but left, where the bedroom was," he said. "I knew it was going to be getting there pretty soon."

After checking with another crew member, he broke the window and entered the room, he said. Still unable to see, he walk straight out from the window and used his hands to search the room.

That's when he found the 2-year-old girl, Aurora Pentz.

"I have one coming to you," he remembers yelling to Capt. Joshua Fentress, who was waiting outside.

Riley handed her through the window to Fentress and turned around to search the rest of the room. He knew the children had to be close together, he said.

As the room started to get hotter, he felt to his left and found the 5-year-old boy, Jaxson Pentz

"The room flashed and everything just pretty much turned to orange," Riley said. "We just had to go."

He handed the boy off and jumped out of the window, he said.

Another child, 7-year-old Kaira Pentz, had been rescued by a neighbor.

Riley said he just wants to make sure the kids are OK.

Their grandparents, Monica and Troy Davis, showed up Friday to thank the crew, which included firefighters Bryce Sparks and Anthony Forestiere and probationary firefighter Ryan McNemar.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Fire investigators believe it was accidental, said department spokesman Art Kohn.

Aurora had surgery Friday and is doing well, said their grandmother. Jaxson had surgery Thursday and is also doing well. As of Friday afternoon, they were both sedated.

Kaira is awake, eating and improving well, too.

The children were taken to a burn unit in Boston. Their mother is with them and their dad will head there soon, their grandmother said. She and other family members are going to visit Saturday.

The kids could be there anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months, she said. A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family.

She's grateful for the team's bravery and efforts to save her family, she said.

"It's amazing that someone would go into this burning building to do that," she said. "These guys are true heroes. And the neighbor that went in and helped Kaira get out.

"Instead of visiting empty beds in the hospital, there were three beds with three kids in them. We're really grateful."

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