Gerrard Kaonga
Heroes don’t always wear capes...sometimes they wear a standard pizza uniform.
Let’s be real, when you think of a hero, you don’t often think of a pizza delivery person...unless you think about Spider-Man I suppose.
But it seems one man might have more in common with the web-slinger than most.
Nick Bostic, a pizza delivery driver out for a drive to clear his head after an argument with his girlfriend, ended up saving multiple lives in one evening in July 2022.
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Bostic, who was driving in Lafayette, Indiana, rescued four children and a woman from a house in flames.
One of the most heroic rescue attempts saw him jump out of a second-floor window, while carrying a 6-year-old girl.
As reported by ABC 13, he said: "It was adrenaline. I hightailed my butt into the house."
Amazingly, police were able to capture Bostic’s efforts on their bodycam - with footage of the moment recirculating on social media after being posted on X on May 15.
In the bodycam footage, Bostic can be heard asking: "Is the baby OK? Please tell me the baby's OK," before someone assures him that they are fine.
He was able to save three children, who were all siblings, ranging from ages 1, 6 and 13, along with a 13-year-old friend of her sibling.
The children were being babysit by their 18-year-old sister, Seionna, who had to call her stunned parents and tell them what happened.
Seionna said she noticed the fire in the living room and ran upstairs to grab her baby sister.
She added that they were coming downstairs when they noticed Bostic who helped them outside before going back into the smoke filled building to find her sister, Kaylani.
"I took a deep breath, and I ran [downstairs] and I grabbed Kaylani. I used my ears to help find her," Bostic said.
The children’s parents, David and Tiera Barrett, were enjoying a lovely date night when they got the call from Seionna, telling them about the horrifying situation.
Speaking to ABC 13 after the fire, David said that the couple ‘dropped everything we were doing and took off running,’.
"I remember pulling up to the house and running up and all Seionna could say was, 'I can't find Kaylani,” he said.
"Then the officers said, 'She's in the ambulance,' and then they told me about Nick and what he had done. I started crying more.
"One of the most awful feelings to have is that I wasn't there. Kaylani said, 'Daddy I was looking for you.'"
"On our wall, in our living room, it was completely burnt down. The only thing that was left was [a sign that read] 'love,' and that's all I feel from everyone.”
Bostic suffered smoke inhalation as well as an arm injury and other wounds, before being discharged two days later.
Even maintaining the hero attitude, Bostic said the injuries that he sustained were ‘all worth it’.
And just last year, he was awarded the Carnegie Medal for saving the children - which is given to people who risk extreme danger to help others.