STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAU) — James Phillip doesn’t consider himself a hero. Stevens Point officials say he certainly is one, and recognized him with a very rare award Monday night.
Phillip was leaving the UPS distribution center in Stevens Point at around 3:40 a.m. Monday April 20th, and says he noticed something that didn’t seem right. “We were just getting ready to pull out of town, and I noticed a flaring in the garage, and when I finally drove over there and saw what was going on, I figured it was about time to get somebody out of the house.” Phillip was able to awaken six people sleeping in an RV parked in the driveway close to the burning garage, and then help get the RV owner’s mother out of the house.
The seven people Phillip woke up were all very exhausted, as they had just finished playing UW Stevens Point’s annual Trivia contest a couple of hours before the fire.
Stevens Point Fire Chief Robert Finn has no doubt Phillip’s actions in just over four minutes kept seven people alive. “Mr Phillip put his actions and disregard of his own life so other people could survive, and never though twice of it. In my mind, that makes him a hero.”
Finn says, “Mr. Phillip attached a garden hose to an outside faucet, and went inside the garage and stood by the door while they got the mother out, and then he tried to extinguish the fire. They were able to remove the RV before fire department arrival. When the fire department’s first companies arrived, the garage was totally involved and went through the roof in the back and was already extended into the house.”
Finn says because of the characteristics of the fire, and where the RV was parked, he has no doubt Phillip saved seven lives that morning. “What would have happened in this particular incident, the flame would have broke the windshield on the RV because it was pulled up right where the overhead door was. The heat and smoke would have got in the RV and the occupants inside the RV would never have been able to get out, especially the little kids.”
The fire rapidly went from a back wall to fully engulfing the garage, a car inside, the roof, and part of the house in less than five minutes.
James Phillip was given the Meritorious Service Award by the City of Stevens Point Monday night. It’s the first time a civilian has ever received the award.
(Listen to our interviews here with Fire Chief Robert Finn and UPS Driver James Phillip.)