First Published:
2:57 PM PDT, May 23, 2022
A Florida mother is thanking two sheriff’s deputies for rescuing her son from a fire.
“My son’s in there!” Karen McGinnis called out, as officers arrived on the scene. The house was engulfed in flames, with her 9-year-old Owen Ares trapped inside.
One of the deputies smashed the window.
“Come to the window, baby! Grab my hand!” the distraught mom said.
But the 9-year-old can’t make it out.
“Stick your hand down to where you see the light!” a deputy said.
Desperate seconds ticked by, but the deputies just couldn’t find the boy in the thick smoke that engulfed the house.
Finally, they spotted the youngster and hauled him through the window and over to some grass. He was unresponsive but breathing. It was a huge relief to his mom, who thanked the deputies for saving him.
“At first we could not figure out where he was within that bedroom,” Deputy Kevin Rich tells Inside Edition. “That’s a pretty scary feeling. Every second counts.”
Owen is now on a ventilator in a Tampa hospital with second-degree burns, but is improving every day. The deputies visited him in the hospital.
“He’s my only son, my precious north star,” McGinnis tells Inside Edition.
The mom has been at her son’s bedside, holding his hand and telling him that he’s loved.
“He’s making a full recovery, we’re hopeful of that,” McGinnis said.
The family says they are speaking out because they want to make sure the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office deputies get recognized for their heroic efforts.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help pay for their destroyed home.
