Jonathan Golas

Jonathan Golas helped rescue Jill A. Christensen from impending explosion, Berlin, Massachusetts, April 14, 2023. Christensen, 49, was asleep in her second-floor bedroom when a propane explosion in the basement leveled the two-and-a-half-story house. Christensen’s mother, 79, was asleep in her bedroom on the first floor. Christensen woke to being trapped beneath debris and a wooden roof beam. She screamed for help. Golas, 37, quality control manager, was at his house about 250 feet away when he woke to noise from the explosion. He went outside to investigate and, as he neared the scene, he saw the house had collapsed and was burning. Golas saw his neighbor and the neighbor’s adult son on the debris pile and they shouted to him that they needed help. Golas stepped over a live, arcing power line and ascended the debris pile to a point about 15 feet from encroaching flames. Golas and the father and son were able to lift the beam after multiple tries, freeing Christensen. As flames encroached the end of Christensen’s bed, the neighbor and his son lifted her from the bed, soon joined by Golas. With the flames spreading toward them, they moved Christensen toward the front of the debris pile, and she was then taken to a stretcher from a responding ambulance. As Golas, the neighbor, and the neighbor’s son moved from the debris pile, a second explosion sent flames 30 feet into the air. Firefighters were unable to rescue Christensen’s mother, who was trapped inside and died at the scene. Christensen, who was not burned, went to the hospital for injuries suffered in the explosion. She recovered. Golas was not injured.

2023-0000114-10532