When Tim Bradley is not working in the Department of Insurance, he serves as the volunteer fire chief in his home community of Mebane. One evening, he was called to a fire and told that a mother and her three children were trapped inside their burning home. Upon his arrival, fire was blowing out the windows and doors of the home, and the fire trucks had not yet arrived on the scene. He reasoned that anyone still inside was in very serious danger.
As he got out of his car, he heard the mother screaming tht her son was inside and that someone needed to save him. He later learned that a neighbor had helped the mother and two of the children escape the blaze, leaving the third trapped in a bedroom. Tim realized that if he waited for the fire trucks to arrive, the boy would not likely survive. That is when he decided to enter the house through a window.
When he entered the bedroom, the smoke was so thick he could not see. Feeling his way through the dark room, he had to return to the window for fresh air. As he crawled across the floor and around furniture, he discovered the young boy and pulled him under his arms. When he turned around, he couldn't find the window but headed in that general direction until he saw the light. He handed the boy out of the window to emergency personnel who put him in the ambulance.
Thanks to the quick thinking and heroic actions of Tim Bradley, the young boy recovered after a two-month stay in the Burn Center at UNC. Though Tim asserts that all rescue efforts are team efforts, we are proud to single out Time Bradley as a true North Carolina hero.
Tim was honored for the State Employees' Award for Excellence in the Safety and Heroism Catagory at a ceremony on October 15, 2007 at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh, NC. He was one of 16 state employees receiving this award.
