September 2001 Volume 82 Number 9 "serving the protectors"
No Time for Dying
By Brett Williams

Most think only firefighters save human lives from burning buildings. But one SA cop first on the scene of a raging house fire did not hesitate to risk is own life for a helpless victim.

Senior Constable Bob Stewart could not see or breathe as he searched for a trapped toddler in a burning Croydon Park house last April. He crawled and stumbled his way through dense, black smoke in the 15-month-old boy’s bedroom, and strained to hold his breath.

And, not even able to see his hand in front of his face, Stewart could only search for the silent child by touch.

Meanwhile, the fire raged. Fierce orange flames leapt as high as three metres from the roof of the sandstone Days Rd house. Smoke billowed from every window and door, and Stewart could not yet hear even the distant sound of a fire-truck siren.

“I was pretty apprehensive,” he says. “I knew it was serious. It was like being in mud. The smoke was a worry (as was) not being able to see. And, knowing that the kid was in there and not crying, you think something untoward has happened.”

With his then partner, Kurt Edwards, Stewart had arrived at the house in the early morning after spotting the smoke from streets away. He had expected to find the scene abuzz with fire-fighting, jammed traffic and inquisitive onlookers.

Instead, Stewart was shocked to find he and Edwards were the first emergency-services crew on the scene. Their only information came from panicked bystanders who, at the front of the house, yelled: “There’s a child inside!”

Stewart realized that, if he was to save the boy’s life, he had not a moment to spare. He ripped his gun belt from his waist and handed it to Edwards. Then, acting on pure instinct, he climbed into the bedroom through a broken window to begin his desperate search.

He knew that, through that window, a bystander had already dragged the boy’s four-year-old sister to safety.

Now, holding a gulp of air he had taken at the window, Stewart felt his way around the room. He reached the end of a bed close to where he had entered but, within only seconds, had to scurry back to the window for more air.

“I was very relieved at the end of it (and shed) a few tears.”

At the same time, he asked the bystanders to guide him more precisely to the boy’s position. “They directed me back into one corner,” he says. “I went back in on my hands and knees and felt around a bit more, but still couldn’t feel anything. Then I started to get a bit worried.”

For the second time, Stewart returned to the window, gasped for more air and urged the bystanders to be sure about the boy’s position. Again, they directed him to the same corner, insisting it was not far away.

Stewart was determined to make a third attempt, but realized it could well be his last. He figured the boy might have moved within the room, or somehow escaped to another part of the house. Either way, he “wasn’t going to be doing it (searching) for too much longer”.

With another gulp of air, Stewart returned to his hands and knees and began another sortie into the deathly smoke.

“I (remember) feeling a pile of clothes,” he says, “and thinking: ‘That could be something’. I picked it up and realized it was the young fellow!

“He was just completely limp, and I thought: ‘Shit, he’s not breathing’. I thought I was too late; that he was dead.”

So, with the child’s seemingly lifeless body in his arms, Stewart charged toward the window. From there, he handed the boy to paramedics before himself climbing out to safety. Just on the scene, the paramedics acted instantly to revive the boy.

Says Stewart: “It was only a matter of seconds later that I heard: ‘We’ve got him breathing again. He’ll be fine’. I thought: ‘That’s great’. I was very relieved at the end of it (and shed) a few tears.”

Through the entire life-and-death rescue, Stewart, then 39, had cast aside all regard for his own safety. He later spoke of launching himself into action as “an automatic thing” and “just something you do”. He insists that, for a person in danger, “you go in and get them out”.

“I never thought I was going to die,” he says. “There’s no time for (that thought), really.”

“I never thought I was going to die. There’s no time for (that thought), really.”

But Stewart did think of his own two young girls. Later, at home, he hugged them as a father grateful for his children’s wellbeing.

Suffering smoke inhalation, Stewart went to hospital for treatment and blood tests. Miraculously, he emerged with no ill effects from his courageous efforts.

Before the day’s end, he visited the boy - and saw his grateful mother - in the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. There, he expected to find his condition critical.

“He was jumping up and down in his cot,” says Stewart, “he was fine. She (the mother) was pretty tearful. We all had a few tears.”

Police Association president, Peter Alexander, believes Stewart and his family should feel proud of his deed. “These were heroic actions,” he says, “and that he did so well under those circumstances is not surprising to those of us who know him.

“These acts by police officers are very special, and the more we acknowledge them the better.”

Now, back on the job, Stewart drives past the empty, burnt-out house every day. Each drive-past brings back memories, but ones he says are positive.

“The result was the best I’ve ever had,” he says. “You have car prangs where there’s just death everywhere and, all of a sudden, out of this comes something good.

“You go through life wondering if you’re up to it when presented with a situation; how you would react. I know how I’m going to react, so I’ve answered that question.”

But did Stewart have any regrets about his actions? “Hell, no,” he exclaims, “ not at all. I’d do it again.”

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