Belleville firefighters honored for saving toddler’s life. His mother didn’t make it.
Ryan Mahoney and Alex Kuhl faced intense heat, heavy smoke and “zero visibility” on Jan. 11, when they entered a home near downtown Belleville that was burning on three sides.
Occupants and neighbors had told the firefighters that people were trapped inside, including a child.
Kuhl heard what he described as “toddler babble” in a front room. He alerted Mahoney, who stopped to listen then headed toward the corner, between a mattress and a closet.
“I literally stuck my arm out, and it went across the small of his back, and I was like, ‘I know this feeling,’” said Mahoney, who has two small children of his own. “I could not see him. I bear-hugged him, and then I got him outside, and there was this little blond head of hair filled with soot.”
The boy in Mahoney’s arms was 2-year-old Malcolm Tompkins. He survived the fire with barely a scratch, but his mother, Kirsten Tompkins, 25, of Collinsville, was pronounced dead at the scene.
On Tuesday night, Mahoney and Kuhl received Lifesaving Medals at the Belleville City Council meeting. It’s the highest honor that Belleville Fire Department bestows on firefighters.
Fire Chief J.P. Penet presented the medals to Mahoney and Kuhl, explaining that they didn’t stop after saving the toddler.
“Despite significant personal risk to themselves, they re-entered the burning building three more times to rescue the family dog, make an aggressive attack on the fire in spite of flashover conditions, and they located the body of the child’s mother, who was found to have perished in the toxic heat and smoke, searching for a safe exit.”
West grad and Army veteran
Tompkins was a Belleville West High School graduate who spent eight years in the U.S. Army. She was studying at Southwestern Illinois College to become an X-ray technician.
Audience members at the City Council meeting included Tompkins’ grandmother, Dee Turnbeaugh, who adopted her at age 7 and raised her; uncle Bradley Smith and godmother Jean Riggs.
Tompkins also was survived by her husband, Charles “Frankie” Boedeker, and sister Miranda Tompkins.
“I’ve buried all three of my daughters,” said Turnbeaugh, 67, of Belleville, counting Kirsten Tompkins as one of them. “Kirsten’s death was a sucker punch. There’s no other word for it. I was like, ‘This can’t be happening again.’”
Nearly 100 people donated more than $6,000 to a GoFundMe campaign set up by the family to help with Tompkins’ funeral expenses.
On Jan. 11, Tompkins had taken Malcolm and their dog to stay with two high school friends in Belleville, according to Turnbeaugh. She estimates that they arrived about 2 a.m. at the small, historic, white frame home at 605 Rodenmeyer St., near Washington School.
Firefighters were dispatched to the home about 6:45 a.m. Engineer Mahoney was the acting captain in charge.
“Mahoney and his crew arrived first on the scene to find a 1 1/2-story residence with heavy fire involvement on the left, rear and right side on the first and second stories of the building,” Penet said.
“They were met by the occupants and neighbors in front of the residence, stating the confirmed entrapment of a child, other possible adults and their pets.”
Mahoney, 36, started working in fire service at age 18 and joined Belleville’s department nearly 10 years ago. Kuhl, 32, is a probationary firefighter who came on board in August after serving seven years with East Side and Swansea volunteer fire departments.
Smoking suspected as cause
Workers demolished the burned home on Rodenmeyer, and investigators have closed the case without pinpointing an exact cause for the fire.
“The investigative process is a process of elimination, and we eliminated a lot of things,” Penet said. “One of the things we couldn’t eliminate was smoking. There were several indicators that it could have been (the cause).”
The St. Clair County coroner’s office asked Turnbeaugh to help identify Tompkins’ body through descriptions of her wedding ring and tattoos, including a stopwatch image on her arm and mountains on her back, in lieu of an in-person viewing due to severe injury.
Turnbeaugh learned Tuesday night that Malcolm’s “babble” helped firefighters find him. It brought tears to her eyes because the toddler hasn’t yet started talking, possibly related to his autism.
“It makes me feel good because he wasn’t crying or sitting there in fear or in hurt,” Turnbeaugh said. “He was just waiting and telling them in his own words, ‘Here I am. Somebody find me.’”
After the rescue, Malcolm was taken to Memorial Hospital Belleville and released into the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. He’s staying temporarily with a foster mother who seems “wonderful,” according to Turnbeaugh.
Malcolm turned 3 in March.
Mahoney suffered minor burns in the fire. He called the day a “win” because the toddler lived but admitted mixed emotions due to firefighters not being able to save his mother.
“The decisive actions of engineer Ryan Mahoney in a leadership role and the courage shown by probationary firefighter Alex Kuhl displayed the best traditions and service the Belleville Fire Department has to offer,” Penet said.
“Their unrelenting drive to disregard their personal safety and ignore the instinct to flee fire and disorienting smoke conditions saved the life of an innocent child.”
This story was originally published July 6, 2022 at 10:32 AM.
