‘There are no heroes here’
Man helps clear his family from Lynn home in blaze
Sophear Chau had just reset the circuit breaker in the basement of his family’s three-story home on Grover Street in Lynn after it blew out Thanksgiving night, when he heard the ominous crackling inside the walls.
Chau, 36, and his father-in-law, Sonny Prum, 47, stopped, stricken, hearing the flames burning inside the walls of the house they had called home for almost 20 years until it was destroyed Thursday night. The two men ran up the stairs, yelling for their family of 17 people to get out of the house. Dozens of relatives were gathered for the holiday. They had just finished Thanksgiving dinner. Some relatives were napping while children were playing and dancing to music.
Chau described what happened to the Herald’s Kathleen McKiernan:
“We all hang out on the holidays here. One of the circuit breakers blew. We were in the basement. We heard crackling in the walls. We knew right away we had to get out.
I started yelling for everyone to get out. The house went up in flames right after.
I just had to find the kids. I have two little ones. There was a bunch of kids in the house, nieces and nephews. The whole family was here. This is the place to be for Christmas, Thanksgiving …”
Yesterday, surveying the wreckage, Chau mourned the loss of his family’s home.
“It was awesome living here. The back door was always open. That was the scary part. We didn’t know where all the kids were. Everyone was scattered throughout the house. I ran up to the third floor. We got everyone out.”
But Chau downplayed his role in getting everyone out safely, averting what could have been a deadly disaster.
“There are no heroes here. It’s family. It’s something you have to do. The heroes are those guys who put out the fire.”