Teen grabbed ladder, ran to neighbor’s burning home: ‘I’m saving the baby’

Tyler Sowden was on a phone call in his family’s Cleveland home Friday when he heard a scream. Sowden, 16, rushed outside and saw black smoke pouring from a nearby house.

He ran to his garage, grabbed a ladder – and filled with adrenaline – raced with the roughly 100-pound ladder past about 10 houses until he reached the one on fire.

A woman, a baby and a child were on the home’s second-story porch roof. The woman screamed for help as smoke billowed behind her.

Sowden set up the ladder, then climbed up and grabbed the 11-month-old with his left arm while holding the ladder with his right.

With smoke rushing into his face, Sowden carefully navigated the baby to the ground before helping the two others down the ladder. Less than a minute after they had reached safety, the house burst into flames, city officials said.

Now, Cleveland emergency responders, neighbors and even a professional athlete are praising Sowden, a 10th-grader, for his quick instincts.

“It was God who used him like an angel to save our lives,” Judith Avila Padilla, who was in the burning house with her three children, told the Washington Post.

Avila Padilla said she awoke to black smoke filling her second-floor room around 11 a.m. She said she, her 11-month-old daughter, Grace, and her 7-year-old son, Caleb, struggled to breathe.

She opened the window and they crawled onto the roof. She said she was relieved to hear her 12-year-old son, Abner, yelling on the other side of the house before he jumped off the porch.

Avila Padilla screamed for help, she said, but nobody was on the street. Her neighbor came out a few moments later and called 911, she said.

“At any moment the house could collapse,” she said, “and I’d fall into the flames.”

Then she saw Sowden running down Sacramento Avenue with his stepfather’s 40-foot fiberglass ladder. Sowden, who was on spring break, had learned to use a ladder after tagging along on some of his stepfather’s construction jobs.

After setting up the ladder, Sowden asked the neighbor at the scene to hold the bottom for stability. In his mind, Sowden recalled thinking: “I’m saving the baby.”

Avila Padilla handed over Grace, whom Sowden gave to a neighbor on the sidewalk after descending the ladder. Sowden climbed up again to lead Caleb down as smoke started escaping faster from the windows. Avila Padilla then climbed down.

Sowden pulled down the ladder, and the Cleveland Fire division arrived about a minute later, he said. At that point, the house was in flames.

“He certainly put himself in harm’s way to help that family,” Cleveland Fire Lt. Mike Norman said.

Rain began falling as Sowden sat across the street and watched dozens of firefighters battle the blaze. He said he suddenly felt exhausted as he processed what had happened.

“It was just kind of insane to think what I did,” he said.

Sowden spoke to firefighters and local TV reporters on the street in his navy blue Nike sweatshirt and gray sweatpants, which were covered in ashes.

The fire shattered windows and left the house’s interior and exterior charred. Firefighters extinguished the blaze in about 50 minutes, Norman said, adding that the cause of the fire is still under investigation. Avila Padilla and her children were treated for smoke inhalation at a local hospital and were quickly released, Norman said.

The fire department thanked Sowden on social media, and hundreds of people commended him. Sowden said he received dozens of messages from friends and strangers, calling him a hero.

Meanwhile, Sowden’s mother, Brittany Cart, drove her son to Taco Bell, where Sowden ate a grilled cheese burrito. He slept for more than eight hours that night.

On Saturday, Sowden, who’s still aiming for his driver’s license, said he was walking to a nearby Walgreens when people driving by rolled down their windows and gave him a thumbs-up. A police officer recognized him and thanked him, Sowden said.

On Monday, Avila Padilla reunited with Sowden outside his house, where she thanked him and handed him Grace again to hold for a photo. The next day, Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell called Sowden one of “the real heroes in this community” while speaking to reporters after practice.

Sowden – who enjoys drawing cars and playing survival video game DayZ on his Xbox – said the incident made him consider his future career. Being a firefighter is now top of his list.

“I didn’t really have a plan until this kind of happened,” Sowden said. “I’m like, ‘Maybe that’s a sign.’ ”