‘Someone’s worst nightmare’ — Witness to deadly West Jordan house fire describes rescue of child at the scene

WEST JORDAN, Utah (ABC4) — One woman who witnessed the West Jordan house fire that killed 3 people and sent another to the hospital described the moment that her boyfriend ran to rescue the only survivor of the fire, a child. She said that the child was burned “head to toe”, but that her boyfriend doesn’t consider himself a hero.

That rescue was caught on video, as her boyfriend, Asher, makes the decision to jump out of his vehicle and run toward the home engulfed in flames to help what appears to be a child in the backyard trying to get out.

Lucy Hunt is the other person in that video who continued recording after he left the car and jumped over the fence into the backyard. She spoke to ABC4.com, describing the scene and Asher’s actions.

While police have not confirmed, Hunt stated that the child was the fourth individual who was life flighted to the hospital in critical condition.

Lucy said that they were in the car before they saw the fire. Asher was driving to work, and he was planning to drop her off on the way, when he noticed the smoke billowing from the fire.

He asked Lucy if they should turn around, and she said yes.

“And so we turned around, and it was like, so much worse than we thought it was, and it was already getting darker and darker and larger,” she described, referring to the smoke.

Asher didn’t hesitate, Lucy said. “He just ran and jumped the fence because he saw… He saw a little kid come out the side of the house.”

Lucy said she stayed in the car because she didn’t have shoes on, but she could see the child in the backyard.

“You could just see her reaching for the gate, she couldn’t get it open, and a neighbor broke down the fence so she could get out of there.”

Lucy described the child’s injuries. “From where I could see, like you could tell that… In [Asher’s] own words, he said that she was burned from head to toe.”

(Images courtesy Bayan Wang and Brandon Toale)

She added that the child’s injuries didn’t feel real to her, and they looked like something out of a movie.

“She was screaming. She was probably in so much pain,” Lucy stated. She also said that the child was talking, but they couldn’t understand what she was saying.

Once it was over, Asher and Lucy went back to their house, but on the way, they saw a dog who apparently came from the house that caught on fire.

“At first we thought it was like, you know those grey dogs that have really long hair? We thought it was one of those, but we pull up and we roll down the window, you could smell the smoke on this dog. From so far away, you could smell it.”

She said that the neighbor who broke down the fence also ran into the house and pulled the dog out, but it got spooked and ran. That neighbor ran into the house multiple times, she added, and he took his shirt off for the child to have something to wear.

Asher declined to speak to the media, and Lucy said that he doesn’t want to talk about it.

“I think the reason that he didn’t want to talk to anyone is because he didn’t consider himself a hero,” she said. “I don’t think he likes it when people keep saying that to him, because she got herself out, you know? She got out by herself. She’s the reason she’s alive. He only really guided her.”

Even though Asher may not want to be called a hero, Lucy described his courage.

“I think he is so brave,” Lucy said. “You don’t know that many people who would just jump into that, ’cause we were across the street. We could feel how hot it was, like so hot, I can’t even imagine how it was over there.”

Asher was taken to the ER to be treated, but Lucy said that he is back home and doing well. She said that he also doesn’t want to talk about what happened because he doesn’t want to think about it.

“That’s something you never want to see,” she said. “That’s like someone’s worst nightmare, and so, honestly, I think he’s just trying not to think about it, and I can’t imagine how it is for [the child] when she recovers.”