Caltrans Highway Landscape Leadworker

Department of Transportation

1/21/2004

Special Act Award (Gold)

California Department of Transportation employee John Wells on January 21, 2004, performed an act of heroism at risk to his personnel safety by rescuing five children from a burning home in Sacramento. At 8:50 a.m., while driving to work on a foggy Sacramento morning, Mr. Wells noticed smoke coming through the fog from the roof of a house. Five children, ages 6, 7, 8, 9, and 13 were alone in the house when one of them went upstairs into an attic hideaway and began playing with a lighter and paper. A fire started and the child tried to put it out, but it quickly became out of control. Mr. Wells stopped and banged on the door, bringing one of the children to the window. He convinced the child to open the door. Once the door was opened, Mr. Wells found four of the children downstairs watching television unaware of the fire. He rushed all of the children including the one upstairs, safely out of the house and put them in the cab of his truck. He tried to call 911 on his cell phone, ran into technical difficulties and finally called the Caltrans dispatcher to notify firefighters, who were there within minutes. The fire was severe enough to cause the family to temporarily move out and the damage was estimated at $50,000. Sacramento Fire Department Captain Niko King stated that the house would have been gone in five minutes and Mr. Wells’ instincts probably saved the lives of the children. Without a thought to his own personal safety, Mr. John Wells entered a burning home and rescued five children.