DETROIT – An apartment explosion happened in Detroit on March 31, and for the first time since then, some of the survivors were reunited with the men and women who saved them.
“Today’s accommodations are well deserved, but there’s no plaque to say what these men and women did on that day,” said Chuck Simms, Detroit’s Executive Fire Commissioner, during the recognition ceremony.
At 4 a.m. on March 31, resident Jameliah Hines found herself in a desperate situation when she returned home from work.
“When I walked into the building, I smelled it,” Hines recalled.
After waking her fiancé, Brandon Bradwell, to investigate the odor, their lives changed forever.
“It felt like a city bus had hit the building. The impact completely knocked me to the ground,” Hines said, describing the moments following the explosion. She recounted being on fire and managing to get one daughter to safety before returning for her youngest child.
Outside the severely damaged building, Hines spotted Bradwell struggling to walk.
“He was walking away, but almost like he was trying to keep himself held up,” Hines said. A neighbor provided shelter for the children while emergency responders arrived to rescue other trapped families.
Paramedic Dalana Gumina treated Hines at the scene.
“I asked her, ‘Am I going to die?’ She’s like ‘no, you’re not going to die,’” Hines said.
For the first responders, the reunion stirred mixed emotions.
“It’s unsettling to learn that not everyone survived. When you look back on those things, you only wish that you could do the best for everyone in that situation,” Gumina said.
Bradwell died from his injuries several weeks after the explosion. Hines shared memories of her late fiancé: “So protective, a protector, he was a great father. You seen him, you seen those two girls. He was just a loving person gone way too soon.”
Gumina reflected on seeing Hines at the reunion.
“You always wonder at the end of the run, how did so and so do... how did it turn out for everyone?” Gumina said. “To see her up – to see her walking, seeing her smile and her babies.”