Grapevine Council honors man for selfless act of heroism

Dough Aguirre humbly says he was not a hero, but doing what anyone would have done, when he pulled a grandmother and her young grandson to safety from a burning duplex on Dec. 5.

But the Grapevine City Council believes otherwise.

At the Feb. 2 City Council meeting, Aguirre was presented a certificate of recognition for his heroic lifesaving action. Mayor William D. Tate, who presented Aguirre the award for his “selfless act of heroism,” called him “a real neat fellow.”

Aguirre was home with his parents in the 300 block of Starnes Street when his mother heard a child screaming in their adjoining duplex and smelled smoke. She told her son, who was in a back bedroom.

He went next door to check it out and found their 4-year-old neighbor barely walking and his grandmother lying nearly unconscious on the floor inside the screen and glass front door.

She was saying, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,’” Aguirre said. “And he was saying ‘please, help grandma, help grandma!’”

“They seemed very desperate,” Aguirre said. “Smoke was all over the place.

“It was surreal.”

Aguirre used an umbrella he found outside the door to break the door’s window while his mother reached inside and unlocked the door. He dragged the woman and child to safety on the lawn.

He said as soon as he pulled the two outside, “within two or three seconds the fire started consuming everything.”

The fire was ruled accidental.

Grandmother and grandson were treated at a Dallas hospital and released.

In a choked up voice, City Councilwoman Duff O’Dell, who knows the grandmother, added her “personal thanks” for saving her friend.

“I want to tell you how much I really, really appreciate what you did,” O’Dell said.

In accepting the award, Aguirre said anyone in the council chamber would have done the same thing.

“When you see somebody in danger, I think it’s a natural response to try to help that person in danger without actually thinking,” Aguirre said.

“I think we become braver.”

This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 3:40 PM with the headline "Grapevine Council honors man for selfless act of heroism."