BALTIMORE (WMAR) — It was a welcome home celebration 9 months in the making. A community coming together for the return of a hero.
Pierre Gibbons deserves it. After 9 months in the hospital fighting for his life, he is still recovering from severe burns to the majority of his body from a fire in September, but he'd do it all over again.
"I've had plenty of time to think about it... yes I would do it again," said Gibbons.
When he saw his neighbors house up in flames but she was no where to be found, he rushed in to save her.
"There wasn’t a whole lot of thought. There was fire and there was someone there needing help. My instinct made me go," said Gibbons said.
He got trapped. He and his neighbor both had to be pulled out. She didn’t make it.
The first responders there that night came back out to welcome him home.
"They’re the heroes. I’m just a guy in the neighborhood. These are your every day heroes right behind you. They’re the ones that pulled me out of this fire," said Gibbons.
It’s that selflessness, of first responders, of Gibbons that night, that his son Jeremiah, who is a fire fighter himself, hopes inspires others.
"That’s the moral that I want my kids to understand growing up is just that it doesn’t matter who’s who. If they don’t have a shirt, we’re the type of people that give you the shirt off our back and that’s just how you have to be in life," said Jeremiah.
Gibbons still has a long road to recovery ahead filled with physical therapy and wound care, but he hopes to be walking fully again in 3 months… one year after the fire.
"It's gonna take a lot of work but I got the people around me to make it happen," said Gibbons.
He's thankful for the support from the community. Lots of people donated for his care and M and M Construction worked around the clock to get his house ready for his return.
"They weren’t gonna let me leave the hospital if I didn’t have the proper facilities to come home and these guys all made it happen," said Gibbons.
"We did the foundation, concrete work, cinder block, framing, drywall, painting... we worked until something 9 or 10 p.m. for almost two months," said Mario Pap, with M and M Construction.
"We’re blessed and just can't believe that people have turned out for him the way they have," said Jeremiah.
