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Tarkington Volunteer Firefighter praised for heroic efforts despite tragic outcome to mobile home fire

Read full article: Tarkington Volunteer Firefighter praised for heroic efforts despite tragic outcome to mobile home fire

The Tarkington Volunteer Fire department is praising one of their own after he responded to a call on his own in hopes of saving a Grandmother and baby girl believed to be about nine months old.Captain Doc Sikes said he was at home when he got alerted to a mobile home on CR 2198 near Cleveland.โ€œI know the area, I know the members of the department and where they live I was going to be the only one coming to this station anyway just because of work schedules,โ€ Sikes said. โ€œSo I knew me waiting around for hopefully somebody else to show up would be pretty much out of the ordinary so I pretty much had it pre-determined that once I got to the station, I was just going to put my stuff on and go,โ€ said Sikes.Sikesโ€™ arrived on scene in a matter of minutes.โ€œAny firemen that I know, that I pride myself in knowing would have made the exact same call,โ€ Sikes saidTarkington Fire Chief Paul Gregory said Captain Sikes immediately went to work.โ€œHe put a ladder in the window where they confirmed the victims were last and made entry, found the Grandmother, pulled her to the window and thatโ€™s was about the same time the engine from here arrived and was able to assist getting her out to no avail, she was already deceased,โ€ said Chief Gregory.Captain Sikes and his fellow firefighters went back in the mobile home to search for the baby girl but she too had died.โ€œThis is a very unfortunate circumstance for the fire department, for the family involved,โ€ Sikes said.Chief Gregory told KPRC 2 He was proud of Sikes decision making.lot of times they say you should wait, but you have victims, especially a baby. These guys aren't waiting,โ€ said Chief Gregory.Chief Gregory added that counselors and chaplains will be made available to anybody in his department who needed them.