Steve Macdonald’s life ended the way his friends said he lived it: with pure selflessness and a natural instinct to help others.He would shovel neighbours’ driveways, lend them the keys to his truck, buy stacks of baby clothes and toys and furniture for his future granchildren.He would also, as it turns out, run into a burning building, risking his own life to save others.On Monday, Macdonald died in a horrific Oshawa house fire after saving his pregnant daughter, Alysha, and then running back in to try to save other children trapped inside.He never came back out. Because of his last act of courage, Macdonald will never get to meet his granddaughter. “He was so looking forward to that. He had bought so much baby clothes and furniture and walkers,” said Chris Mayer, who knew Macdonald for about 30 years.Laura Green, who lives near the house, was outside when the fire broke out. She saw an orange glow emanate from one of the windows, and seconds later, people running out into the street without their shoes on, screaming that there was a fire.Green saw Macdonald run out of the house, only to watch him return inside, trying to extinguish the flames that were, at this point, more than half a metre high.Green saw him emerge safely with his seven-months-pregnant daughter.Then he heard someone scream “My baby!” and he ran back in without hesitation, Green said.But when Macdonald returned inside, Green said, the front entrance appeared blocked by a wall of fire.“I knew he was going to have to find an alternate route to get out of the house if he was going to survive.” Jordan Coutu, who witnessed Macdonald’s second trip into the house, saw him call out through an open window.“He was saying that he couldn’t find the kids,” Coutu said, referring to 9-year-old Madeline and 4-year-old Jackson, who died in the fire Monday morning with their mother, Lindsey Bonchek. “He was trying to get the kids,R ...
|
