Braving thick, choking smoke and popping electrical wires to help drag a man out of a burning apartment building usually isn't part of John Mayhugh's morning stroll.
His routine changed when he heard the screams.
Mayhugh, 66, of Millvale, and borough police Chief Dean Girty on Thursday pulled Frank Bolich from a blaze in his second-floor apartment above the Mason Jar in the 500 block of North Avenue.
"I just helped do something I hope someone would do for me," Mayhugh said. "I'm not a hero. I just did what I had to do."
Bolich was in critical condition yesterday at Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side with possible lung damage from severe smoke inhalation, burns and deep cuts on his legs, Millvale Mayor James Burn said. Bolich's age was unavailable.
Two girls in the street screamed that people were trapped inside the building as Mayhugh strode up North Avenue around 8:50 a.m., he said. As Mayhugh drew nearer, windows exploded and sent splintered glass into the street.
Girty arrived moments later and sprinted up steps outside the building leading to Bolich's door. Girty found Bolich near the door -- face-down and semi-conscious -- and immediately grabbed him and pulled him toward the door.
"We could hear Dean screaming at him, 'You've got to help me. Kick your legs,' " said next-door neighbor Kari Pedrotty, 29, who saw the smoke as she took out her garbage. "I tried to go in there to get him out (before anyone arrived), but the smoke just poured out when I opened the door. Dean was going up the steps as I was coming down."
Mayhugh followed Girty up the steps. After the chief nearly was overcome by smoke, Mayhugh grabbed Bolich and finished pulling him out. With the help of another police officer, they carried Bolich down the steps.
"He was pretty much dead weight," said Mayhugh, a retired police constable and former emergency medical services worker. "He was out of it."
A cigarette ignited the fire in a living room couch, Millvale fire Chief Gary Witkowski said.
Girty and Mayhugh had carried Bolich across the street by the time the Millvale firefighters arrived. They thought Bolich's girlfriend might still be inside; she was not.
"I started up the steps, but I couldn't get more than two steps inside," Witkowski said. "The flames and smoke were too bad. ... If (Girty and Mayhugh) hadn't been here, that man wasn't getting out. He wouldn't have lasted much longer."
Girty was treated at the scene for smoke inhalation but declined to go to the hospital.
Damage estimates ranged from $75,000 to $100,000, Witkowski said. The Mason Jar sustained smoke and water damage.
