LINCOLNTON, N.C. — A man left helpless in a house fire is happy to be alive.
Brian Brooks, a local pastor who uses a wheelchair, was paralyzed in a car wreck 25 years ago. He told Channel 9’s Ken Lemon it took his brother and Lincolnton firefighters to get him out.
“Gave up to die more than once,” Brian Brooks said, “Still alive.”
He said what happened Wednesday night was a miracle, again.
After seeing smoke come through the vents at this home on Flint Street, he was in his bed and couldn’t move.
“I hear [my mother] outside screaming at the top of her lungs, ‘Help. I got to get my son out of the house,’” Brian Brooks said.
Firefighters say there was a fire in the bathroom below Brian Brooks. It wasn’t big, but smoke was pouring into his room through a vent.
“It could have been different, but God,” Brian Brooks said.
He called 911, and when the smoke got heavier, he called his brother who was already headed that way.
“I’m like, man, I got. I got you,” his brother Blair Brooks said. When he arrived, he put his brother in his chair.
Blair Brooks added, “You couldn’t see. You couldn’t see.” By then the firefighters arrived.
“There was just heavy smoke pushing into that room,” Lincolnton firefighter Lane Hunsucker said.
Firefighters used their lights as a guide and felt their way to the door with no time to spare.
“With the smoke conditions and the fire, I would say less than three more minutes,” Lincolnton Fire Chief Jason Ingle said.
Brian Brooks said he felt like he would have died much sooner than that.
“It’s a miracle. It’s nothing short of a miracle,” Brian Brooks said.