Nashua firefighters rescue 7-year-old girl from burning home

By James Grob, jgrob@charlescitypress.com

The Nashua Volunteer Fire Department rescued a 7-year-old girl from a burning house last week.

The fire occurred about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at 515 Brasher St. in Nashua, about two blocks from downtown.

When firefighters arrived, they discovered that Janie Brymer was still in the house.

A firefighter found her unconsious and trapped by the front door of the residence, pulled her out and began CPR on her until the Chickasaw County Ambulance arrived on the scene.

Brymer was taken by ambulance to the Floyd County Medical Center, then airlifted to Iowa City. 

Her lungs had been burned, but, according to fire officials, she will recover. The rest of the Brymer family, including two younger brothers, got out safely.

A Facebook post read that, “Janie is doing OK, she will have to be at the hospital for about a week, but she is in great spirits.”

 “This was an all-department effort,” said Nashua Fire Chief Tom Johnson. “I couldn’t be more proud of our firefighters for the work they did that night.”

Abby Johnson, who lives next door and made the call to the Fire Department, said there were some pretty tense moments.

“My husband and I were watching TV and the neighbor came over and was pounding on the door, screaming for us to call 911 because her house was on fire, and her little girl was still inside at that point,” she said. “I called 911. My husband came out and grabbed their hose and tried helping keep the fire down.”

Abby Johnson said the woman was able to get the two little boys out and an aunt also got out safely.

She said that before the firefighters arrived people were trying to climb up the side of the house to break the upstairs bedroom window and wake up the little girl.

Tom Johnson said firefighters were on the scene for about two hours and winds gusting up to 40 mph made the blaze particularly tough to fight.

“We were lucky the wind was in our favor and it was going east and west, rather than north and south, which would have carried the fire to either of the neighbors,” he said.

The Nashua community is coming together to collect donations for the family. 

An initiative, started by Mindy Scridner and Bethany Henningsen of Nashua, urges anyone who wants to help the family to drop off donations at Nashua City Hall. 

A Facebook post by Henningsen reads, “I have talked to Russell Monroe Brymer who is the grandfather to the three small children that lived there and he gave me permission to post what I am about to be asking. These children have lost not only their home, but everything that they possessed. I am putting things together to donate. If you are interested in donating please contact me at City Hall, Monday through Friday, between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.”

Listed items needed immediately include size 8-10 girls clothes, size 3 shoe; size 5-6 boys clothes, size 2 shoe; 4T boys clothes, size 13 shoe; beds, dressers, two boys backpacks, blankets and pillows. 

The Facebook post said the boys like to play with Spider-man, “Army stuff,” Paw Patrol and cars, while Janie likes Barbies, dolls and coloring books.

The post also recommends “gift cards for groceries, shampoo, soap, brushes, toothbrushes, etc.”

An update posted by Henningsen Friday says, “The Brymer Family and myself would like to say THANK YOU a million times over to ALL who have either donated items, inquired about donations and still are donating. It has been such an emotional ride seeing everyone come together for this family. They cannot thank you enough and hope some day they can pay it forward.”

The post said clothing items are still needed for the aunt, size 2X and size 6½ -7 shoes, as well as dressers, bedding, towels and washcloths, kitchen items and winter clothing.

“If you would like to help out but are not able to donate you can also give gift cards or there has been a bank account set up in Russell Monroe Brymer name at First State Bank” in Nashua, the post says.

— Jennifer Lantz of the Nashua Reporter contributed to this report.