Washington Firefighter Attends Graduation Of Girl He Rescued

A retired firefighter says he is “so happy” he was able to watch a girl he rescued from her crib as a 9-month-old walk across the stage and accept her high school diploma.

Mike Hughes, 61, was a captain with the Wenatchee, Wash., Fire Department 17 years ago when he responded to an emergency call about a house fire.

“Our engine pulled up and the whole interior part of the house was burning heavily,” Hughes told ABC News today. “My partner and I went in and I got a call on the radio that they suspected somebody was in the house."

“I went straight to the place in the house that I thought I’d find somebody,” he said. “The door to the bedroom was partially open and she was in her crib just squirming so i snatched her up and got her to the front door and handed her off to the first firefighter who was there.”

The 9-month-old baby inside the crib, whose life was saved by Hughes, was Dawnielle Davison, now a high school senior.

Hughes recalls the rescue as “pretty perfect” and says it is “rare” to have such a happy conclusion — no one inside the house was hurt.

The rescue stuck in Hughes’ mind so much that a few years ago he went online to check on Davison. He found the then-middle school student on Facebook.

“I sent her a note that said, ‘I think i pulled you out of a fire when you were a baby,’” Hughes recalled. “And she gave me a test…she wrote back, ‘Oh yeah, what was my mom doing?’”

“I replied, ‘Well she was at work and your dad was there,’” Hughes said.

Having passed the accuracy test, Hughes kept in touch with Davison.