It was a hero’s welcome for Comcast employee Najee Mosley-Mack at the April 3 meeting of the Fayetteville City Council. Mosley-Mack attended the meeting to receive a proclamation citing his efforts in the March 14 house fire on Hilo Road that saved a man’s life and one of the family’s dogs.
Mosley-Mack was joined for the presentation by Bob Arnold, the man whose life was saved, and by members of Arnold’s family and public safety crews from Fayetteville and Fayette County.
It was in the late morning hours of March 14 that the home of Kevin and Terri Arnold on Hilo Road quickly burned and was determined to be a total loss. And it was Bob Arnold, Kevin’s father, who was escorted to safety by Mosley-Mack who had just arrived for a service call.
The elder Arnold, who lives next door, had opened the house for the service call, said Fayette Fire and Emergency Services spokesman Donnie Davis. Alerted to a potential fire upon his arrival, Mosley-Mack escorted the elder Arnold from the home and was able to save one of the two dogs inside the house.
Mosley-Mack spoke barely a word during the presentation. Speaking outside the building, Mosley-Mack said after he arrived at the home and was walking around the house he saw the basement engulfed in flames. Mosley-Mack said he ran back into the house and told Arnold they needed to leave the home and called 911.
Mosley-Mack escorted Arnold from the home, then went back in to successfully retrieve one of the family’s dogs. He tried to re-enter the home again for the family’s other dog but was prevented by the smoke and flames filling the house.
Arnold was unharmed in the incident. Mosley-Mack was transported to Piedmont Fayette Hospital where he was treated for smoke inhalation and released.
Multiple units from Fayette County Fire and Emergency Services and the Fayetteville Fire Dept. arrived to work the blaze, though the speed and intensity with which it spread led to the home being considered a total loss, said Davis.
