Councilwoman Melissa Bayardelle was sworn in for her second term on the Hiram City Council, just days after a dramatic rescue that saved the lives of a couple and their cat.
The rescue took place shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day when Bayardelle, leaving her neighborhood, noticed flames coming from the second story of a neighbor’s house. Without hesitation, she pulled into the driveway and rushed into the burning home to save her neighbors, banging on the door to alert them.
“There was fire on the second level. I pulled into their driveway and banged as hard as I could,” Bayardelle recounted to CBS New Atlanta.
She found the door unlocked and noticed the lights were still on inside. Receiving no response to her calls, she quickly entered the burning home.
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“Fortunately, the door was unlocked, so I allowed myself in,” she said. “I was screaming and yelling, ‘Hey! There’s a fire. Your house is on fire!'”
Isaiah Richerson and his girlfriend, Dalasia Mitchell, were upstairs preparing for bed when the incident occurred. Richerson initially had trouble understanding the situation.
“I said, ‘Whose house?'” he recalled.”She said, “‘Sir, it’s your house. Get out.'”
The couple narrowly escaped as the flames spread rapidly, engulfing the roof, according to Richerson, who noted that they had no warning.
“The fire started on the roof. There was no smoke or anything through the house, so we had no clue,” he recounted.
Though Richerson and Mitchell escaped the burning house unharmed, their cat, King, was still trapped inside. A neighbor from the opposite side of the street then rushed into the home to rescue the pet, according to Fox5 Atlanta.
“A neighbor, across the street, here ran inside the house to get the cat, so all three made it out safely,” Bayardelle said.
Investigators are still working to determine the cause of the fire, which has made the home impossible to live in. Richerson, however, suspects the fire may have been started by fireworks.
“There was a lot of fireworks going on in the neighborhood,” he said. “We have some tall pine trees in the back. So we’re thinking a firework caught something in our gutter on fire.”
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The couple publicly thanked Councilwoman Bayardelle at the recently held council meeting, hugging her as they expressed gratitude for her life-saving actions.
“The roof collapsed on the second floor. That could have been us laying up there dead asleep,” Richerson said. “She saved our lives that day.”
“The kindness, generosity, and compassion we’ve received has reminded us that we are not alone as we begin the long process of rebuilding and moving forward,” Mitchell told Fox5 Atlanta.
The fire tragically destroyed all of Richerson and Mitchell’s possessions. In response, Bayardelle and Councilwoman Tiffany Carroll are gathering essential items and clothing for the couple. Furthermore, the city has posted a GoFundMe link on its social media platforms to help with the recovery.
“This is a community, and we help each other,” Bayardelle told Atlanta News First. ”Nothing is more important than another person’s life, and if I can make a difference, I will.”
