A kind firefighter has become a community hero after staying behind to make breakfast for three young children when their mom was taken to the hospital.
On Oct. 19, a crew from the Los Banos Fire Department (LBFD) in California responded to a call from a family. Karen Mendoza Silva, a mom of three, was in medical distress and needed to be taken to the hospital. Her three young children, aged between 5 and 8 years, were worried about their mom.
“There was two boys and a girl,” LBFD Capt. Brian Thompson told The Epoch Times. “They were asking, ‘Is she going to be okay?’ ... They were on the phone with their father and with their uncle. I briefly Facetimed with the father to let him know that we were there.”
After Capt. Thompson, 54, and his crew helped Ms. Silva get into an ambulance, his thoughts turned to the kids.
“I started thinking, ‘Oh, we don’t have anybody here to stay with the children,’” he said. “I asked them ... ‘Hey, is there anybody here to stay with you?’ and they said, ‘No,’ that nobody was going to be coming for like, another hour.
“I said, ‘Well, hey, are you ready for school?’ and I tried to take their mind off of it. So we finished getting ready for school. I said, ‘Have you had breakfast yet?’ ... I suggested we make breakfast together.”
Capt. Thompson looked through the kitchen cabinets, and when he couldn’t find breakfast cereal, he suggested making cinnamon sugar toast with them. The kids loved the idea. The captain invited the siblings to help him collect ingredients and make the meal to help keep them calm and occupied.
“I had them get the toaster out, get the bread out, sugar, all the ingredients ... so we made breakfast together, cinnamon sugar toast and orange juice,” Capt. Thompson said. “They seemed excited that the firemen were there and helping them.”
As they began to warm up to him, they showed him their art and schoolwork for the day.
“They were showing me toys that they had in the house, and for a little bit of time it seemed like they had kind of forgotten that their mom was sick,” he said.
After around 20 minutes, the fire crew had to leave, so Capt. Thompson passed the baton to a police officer, and minutes later, the children’s uncle arrived.
Capt. Thompson had no idea that his crew had taken a photo—while he prepared breakfast with the kids— and passed it to the fire department’s social media secretary. So, when the story went viral, he was surprised.
“They keep showing me places that it’s been shared, or what news stations have taken it. It’s kind of hilarious,” the captain said. “We’re a small community of about 50,000 people, and every day that I work I get stopped at least once or twice. ... People will stop me in the grocery store, at the football game. ... It’s been really well received, and I’m glad that I put our fire department in a positive spotlight.”
Capt. Thompson, who has been a firefighter for over 20 years, was motivated by hoping someone would take care of his children if faced with the same situation.
“If my wife had been taken to the hospital, I would hope somebody would do the same,” he said. “I think it was the right thing to do, and I would do it again.”
Capt. Thompson hopes that his impromptu gesture will help “instill some kindness” into the lives of others.
“There’s so much hatred and anger and just uncertainty in the world, and I hope that we can all just take a step back and do something small to make a positive impact on somebody’s daily life,” he told The Epoch Times. “[I]t’s just going to take a bunch of small acts of kindness to kind of offset all the negative that’s going on in the world right now.”
