Posted on 02/25/2009 7:31:21 AM PST by restornu
Elder Joe Bolke, from Cottonwood Heights, is a University of Utah student serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Fenton, MI. But what he's known best for now is his role in an apartment fire rescue.
In the early morning hours of Friday, Feb. 13, Elder Bolke's companion woke him to show him the flames. The missionaries dashed outside without their shoes into the cold Michigan night and started yelling to get others awake.
Their quick thinking helped save lives at the apartment complex, including a mother and her 7-week-old baby who had to be lifted from a second-floor balcony.
As they worked, the building's vinyl siding dripped melting plastic down.
His father says Elder Bolke's not the type to brag about his role in the rescues.
Evert Bolke says his son, Joe, is an Eagle Scout who was always a good kid. "I never had to worry about him getting into trouble," he remembered.
Joe graduated from Brighton High School and plans to return to the University of Utah to study chemical engineering after his mission wraps up in June.
Evert found out about the fire in a phone call with very little details, around 7:30 the morning of the fire. His stake president called, telling Bolke, "Your son, Elder Bolke and his companion have been involved in an apartment house fire. They're OK."
But what the stake president didn't say was that Elder Bolke and his companion were already being hailed as heroes. Evert found that out after he started searching for more information about the fire on the Internet.
He says he's proud of all of his seven children, including his youngest, who lost everything he had in Michigan in the fire. "All they had was their nightclothes and their cell phones," he said.
The Bolkes packaged up a box of things their son couldn't get in Michigan, but it sounds as though the missionaries are getting plenty of help from the community and the relief society in the town where they are serving.
I’d say this doesn’t really need to be caucus, but just having LDS in the title invites the riff raff.
Why isn’t it just: two great young men help a family. Why is it necessary to point out they are LDS?
:)
Glad you recognized the climate the LDS is experiencing many choose to ignore that there is any anit LDS.
Great work! I hope my sons would do the same.
I have no problem in people mentioning they are LDS and I am not a Mormon. These kids are outstanding. One is an eagle scout. The Mormons are A1 in my book as they stuck their neck out for Prop 8 and got their teeth kicked in by the left.
If all of my, now former, Catholics had voted the way Mormons had - we would not have a Kenyan-born Muslim marxist running the country or offerings by the church provided to ACORN and La Raza.
When my son-in-law helped a woman on the side road the headline did not say: born again Christian helps woman. It mentioned in the story that he went to a non-demonination church.
Its just a curiosity.
So why do you think it was done?
Why is a news story allowed to be posted in the Religion area, without comment?
This is not a publication from a religion magazine, it is a news story.
The article is indeed news and has been moved to the News/Activism Forum. It is no longer a caucus.
(His) companion woke him to show him the flames. The missionaries dashed outside without their shoes into the cold Michigan night and started yelling
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Wouldnt yelling “Wake up there’s a fire” be enough ???
They just stood and watched the flames...
OOOOO how pretty...
Then they ran outside screaming in fright...
how do we know this ???
They were not in immediate danger...
One guy had to actually “show” the other one to prove there actually was a fire...
They took the time to admire the flames...
But they didnt stop to put on shoes for the snow and cold outside...
No shoes but they did stop and look for their CELL PHONES...
That has nothing to do with faith, but character.
Guess!!
The KSL.COM Website. ... KSL Television & Radio, Salt Lake City UT A Division of Bonneville International
Here is an act of heroism by a fifteen-year-old in NM, no religion mentioned.
Heroism overlooked Young firefighter's act initially unreported
First on the scene were Prewitt volunteer Fire Chief Able Forkner and his 15-year-old son, Patrick. Forkner, who lives about a mile from the crash scene, heard his beeper page and responded immediately by driving to the crash in his personal pickup with Patrick in the passenger seat. The scene upon arrival must have been harrowing. The tires on the truck exploded, Harris said. It was all smashed in the front and the cab was filling with smoke immediately ... my wifes foot was jammed between the motor and the brake pedal. Harris had been resting in the sleeping quarters of the truck while his wife drove. She was pinned behind the steering wheel and the impact had broken her thumb. Shes not hurt terribly, Harris said. But we didnt know that at the time. The driver-side door became lodged behind the trucks fender and the passenger-side door was little better, Harris said. They got out of a white, half-ton pickup ... the young fellow is the only one we had anything to do with, he said. My wife and I said he looked like he was about 18 years old ... the door would only open about 6 to 8 inches, which was enough for my wife to get out, but it wasnt enough for me ... I was actually trying to kick the door, trying to get it enough. So this young fellow actually pulled on the door. I was very impressed. I was very impressed with what he did. Chief Forkner said when he and Patrick arrived on the scene, the occupants of the second truck were already getting out by themselves, which sent them rushing to check the other passengers. Harris described watching Able and Patrick Forkner running up and down the long line of crushed and burning metal once he and his wife were safely away from the truck. Wed like to thank those two fellows for stopping, Harris said. Those two firemen were the first two there. And it was considerable time before any state trooper got there. |
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Green Jello salad with carrot shavings, 500 pounds of size 10 canned wheat, Caffeine Free Barq's Root Beer, .....
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