Fire Department Honors Reluctant Hero for Rescue

Although he maintains he wasn’t a hero, Lamar Childress was honored Tuesday with the Los Angeles Fire Department’s highest civilian award for rescuing seven of his children and grandchildren from their burning apartment Christmas Day.

“I would have been crazier than a bedbug if I got out of there without the children,” Childress said after receiving the department’s Special Commendation Award.

Very few people receive the commendation, but officials said Childress, 52, deserved the award for hustling the children out of the Wilmington apartment after his 3-year-old son ignited the Christmas tree while playing with a lighter. As the flames and smoke consumed the apartment, Childress led the children to a corner room, opened a window and lifted them to safety.

“It happened so fast I did not know what was going on,” said Childress, who was in another room when the tree burst into flames. “I am not a hero.”

Assistant Chief Sam Diannitto thought otherwise: “You did perform a heroic act and you are a hero.”