Aidan James Loughlin helped rescue Glen Havers from burning, St. Catharines, Ontario, December 6, 2023. Inside his burning apartment on the second floor of a two-story building, Havers, 63, lay unresponsive in a doorway near the top landing of a stairway leading to a street-level exit. Loughlin, 24, off-duty police officer, and his friend, also an off-duty police officer, were walking to a restaurant at about 11:30 p.m. about 400 feet away when they smelled and saw smoke. Seconds later, they heard windows shattering and saw flames issuing from the apartment 20 feet into the sky. Both ran to the scene and instructed bystanders, some recording cell-phone video, to call 911. Loughlin kicked in a locked glass door at street level and both ran and then crawled up the stairs through heavy smoke. At the top of the stairs, Loughlin saw an open door, entered a few feet and tripped over Havers’ feet as flames burned at the ceiling above him. He grabbed Havers by the boots with both hands and pulled him out to the stair landing, passing Havers’ legs to his friend. At one point, Loughlin felt his head getting hot and fearing his hat caught on fire, discarded it. The friend grabbed Havers’ legs and started crawling backward down the stairs while Loughlin, holding the man under his arms, slid down on his buttocks. Navigating around and stumbling over clutter on the stairs, they carried Havers to the first floor and outside to the sidewalk. Havers suffered burns to his head and face and was hospitalized for several weeks, but recovered. Loughlin suffered from smoke inhalation. He was treated at a hospital and released.
