10 april 2019 | rd.com
Reader’s Digest
Photograph by Jason VarneyEVERYDAY HEROES
“Breathe for Her”
He was the last person who should have
run into a burning building—he has lung disease.
But that didn’t stop him.
By Claire Nowak8-year-old Tiara Roberts, the woman’s
granddaughter and a playmate of Sur-
rell’s three youngest kids, then 8, 10,
and 12. The other two on the porch
were Tiara’s aunt and cousin.
Entering the burning house was
like “running into a bucket of black
paint,” Surrell says. The thick smoke
caused him to stumble blindly
around, burned his eyes, and made it
impossible to breathe. The conditions
would have been hazardous for any-
one, but for Surrell, who has chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease, they
were life-threatening.A
t first, Michael Surrell didn’t
see the black smoke or flames
shooting from the windows of
his neighbors’ home. He and his wife
had just parked around the corner from
their own house in Allentown, Pennsyl-
vania, when they got a call from one of
his daughters: “The house next door is
on fire!” He went to investigate. That’s
when he saw two women and a girl
hysterical on their porch.
“The baby’s in there!” one of the
women cried. Though the fire depart-
ment had been called, Surrell, then 64,
instinctively ran inside. “The baby” was