8-year-old dies after rescuing 6 relatives from fire

 An 8-year-old boy was killed in a mobile- home fire in upstate New York early Monday while
attempting to rescue a disabled relative inside,
according to authorities. Tyler J. Doohan, of East Rochester, was staying
at the home of relatives in the nearby town of
Penfield on Sunday night when he noticed a fire in
the single-wide trailer, said Penfield Fire Chief
Chris Ebmeyer. As firefighters and sheriff's deputies responded to
an emergency call around 4:45 a.m., Tyler was
able to wake six other people in the small trailer,
including two more children, ages 4 and 6,
Ebmeyer said. Then Tyler went back into the blaze to help his
grandfather, who was disabled and would have
been unable to get out of the home on his own,
Ebmeyer said. "By that time, the fire had traveled to the back of
the trailer," Ebmeyer said. "Unfortunately they
both succumbed to heat and smoke." Their bodies were found together in a back
bedroom. Tyler's uncle was also killed in the fire, his body
found in a front room, Ebmeyer said. Earlier, fire officials had released a mistaken
version of the incident, where the grandfather and
uncle's locations were switched, due to incorrect
information provided by a family member. "It makes me really proud, it really does, but I just
want him back," Tyler's mother, Crystal Vrooman, told CNN affiliate WHAM. The boy broke away from his aunt outside the
burning trailer and ran back inside to try to save
his grandfather, she said. "All I could think about is how he couldn't
breathe," she told WHAM. The pair were found together on a bed in the back
room. It appeared that the boy was trying to lift his
grandfather from the bed when he was overcome
by the smoke and fire, the fire chief said. Tyler and his grandfather were like best friends,
Vrooman said. "I'm just so grateful that he went with people that
he loved," she said. "He didn't go alone." The cause of the blaze is still under investigation
but believed to be accidental. The conditions of the six survivors were not
immediately available. Ebmeyer said the trailer had no working smoke
detector. He lamented that with so many people in
one small mobile home, one alarm could have
easily woken everyone in time to escape. There was at least one space heater inside the
trailer, the fire chief said. Several pets -- including dogs, cats, a rabbit and
hamsters -- also died in the fire, Ebmeyer said. The Penfield Fire Company -- a volunteer unit --
intends to create a public service initiative to
spread awareness and get smoke detectors out to
the public, he said. Meanwhile, Richard Stutzman Jr., interim
superintendent of the East Rochester School
District, where Tyler attended fourth grade, issued
a statement: "In bravely and selflessly giving his own life, he
was able to save the lives of six others -- and he
truly is a hero."