Last summer, Ray Lucas of Eastpointe, Michigan did something heroic that caught the attention of people across the nation and sparked a GoFundMe viral campaign to help his family. This Michigan father saved his twin daughters from a burning building. Here’s what happened.
The Story of How the Michigan Father Saved His Twins From a Burning Building
Lucas, 23, along with his girlfriend, Shi’Ann Brown, went for a short trip to a corner market to get some milk, leaving their twin babies, Malaysia and Milan, home sleeping under the care of Lucas’s mother. Upon their return, they found their home on fire and Lucas’ mother outside panicking because the twin babies, who were 18-months at the time, were stuck inside in the basement.
The two-story home was engulfed in flames and the babies had been left in their crib asleep before the fire broke out. Because Lucas didn’t know if the fire department would be able to respond quickly enough, he took action.
Lucas told CNN, “I was speechless. Action took over me. I ran into the house to get my babies. I’m looking at it as a father. I did anything that any other father would do or should do.”
Lucas ran into the home, but the flames and smoke were so thick that he wasn’t able to see anything. Navigating to the basement of the burning building, using only his memory of the inside of the home, he found his twin babies in their crib. According to Lucas, one of this daughters was laying down in the crib, but the other was standing up. Both of them seemed responsive to him.
Explaining his relief that they were still alive, Lucas said, “I was so happy they were responsive.”
The Michigan father saved his two girls by grabbing both of them and holding them tightly to himself as he fought through the flames, back upstairs and out of the building.
But Lucas didn’t stop there. Once the Michigan father saved his twin daughters, he learned that his niece was still on the second floor, trapped in the burning building.
He handed the twins to his mother, and he headed back into the home. Unable to find his niece from the inside, Lucas returned outside and found his niece peering out a second-story window. Yelling for her to jump from the burning building, he held out his arms to catch her. Thankfully, Lucas’ niece listened and he was able to catch her.
The twin girls’ mother posted to Facebook the next day:
Lucas suffered from burns all over his arms and face, as well as serious damage to his eyes.
He explained, “My arms burned, both ears burned, right side of face burned, and my neck was burned.”
Regarding his eyes, after the Michigan father saved his twins, he was told he might not regain his vision, but he reported thankfully that it did return after time. “My vision I feel is back to normal, it could be better,” he explained.
As for the twin girls, both were also taken to Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit for severe burns. Both suffered from second- and third-degree burns on different parts of their arms and faces.
The father and his two daughters all stayed in intensive care for five days.
Once discharged from the hospital, Lucas talked about the experience on Fox 2, Detroit’s local news station. Watch that here:
The trauma wasn’t only physical, it was also emotional and mental, and the family lost all they had, but the community responded to care for them…