Honor Aaron Murrell's Brave Deed

Man Who Helped Save Fire Captain Now Needs Your Help

Hello everyone! My name is Aaron Murrell the target of this GoFundMe and my family and I really need your help in order to prevent from being evicted! This is hard to say and embarrassing as well, but I am left with no choice but to ask for your help. I had a hard time figuring out how to explain why anyone should help me when so many others have the same problems, or even worse. I had to speak to someone very close to the family to get their consent to do this. I struggled with embarrassment and humility, but after speaking to former Captain and now Fire Battalion Chief Des Ruisseaux, my family and I have been given the OK to ask for that help. Chief Des Ruisseaux is the bravest man we have ever known. We want to be candid with you all, it is NOT EASY using this story, but I was encouraged by the chief to not be afraid to talk about it and ask for help, so here it is. After the story you will read about and watch video of, we're sure you will agree with not only the chief's bravery but also myself and my communities as well. I ask for your help today because after helping to save a whole apartment building full of residents and then Captain Des Ruisseaux during a huge house fire, I lost my job of 10 years in behavioral health helping others. I was able to find another job and currently still working, but as of July 2024 rent has since gone up by $600 per month. Aaron was in a horrible accident in February, has been out of work and at this time we're danger of being evicted and ending up homeless. We are not looking for a handout but a hand up. We ask that you look into your hearts and help a person who would risk giving his own life to help someone else. We ask that you read and watch the story below about what happened the day of the fire and pray you can see the good in all of us and donate to help today! These funds will be sent directly to myself Aaron and only spent to prevent eviction and get us on our feet. We thank you in advance for your consideration and anything you can give!

Steve DesRuisseaux always felt another soul was present the night he almost died fighting a fatal fire in Manchester a year ago — a shadowy memory of a man helping to free him after his gear got snagged on a ladder.

He just wasn’t sure who. Until the mystery man walked into Central Fire Station in September, looking to say hello.

“It was the missing piece in all this,” said DesRuisseaux, a captain with the Manchester Fire Department.

Aaron Murrell, the neighbor who rushed to help firefighters responding to a fatal blaze on Dutton Street on Nov. 6, 2021, was honored Tuesday night at City Hall before a large crowd of firefighters, friends and family.

“I was battalion chief that night,” said Assistant Fire Chief Dave Fleury. “What a lot of us don’t know is that there was one individual there, an innocent bystander, and had he not done what he did that night, that night would have turned out a lot differently.”

DesRuisseaux read aloud Tuesday a resolution honoring Murrell for his actions. The firefighter was visibly overcome with emotion as he described the events of the night he received hird-degree burns on more than a third of his body.

Murrell received a standing ovation.

“Thank you for your generosity, but the truth of the matter is those are the real heroes,” said Murrell, pointing at firefighters behind him. “I have a firefighter brother, and when I saw what was happening and that they needed some help, all I could see was my brother up there, so I did what I had to do. But these folks run into fires every single day of their lives, and they never know if they’re going to make it.”

DesRuisseaux returned to duty over the summer, seven months after the incident.

Firefighters rescued six people, including a baby, officials said. Two girls, two men and a woman were rescued from the third floor, and a man was helped down from the second floor by ladder.

“As I was making the second-floor rescues, that’s when everything lit up,” DesRuisseaux said. “Conditions deteriorated rapidly. As I was trying to make it out the window, I dove on the ladder and my gear got hung up, with my air pack on the top of the ladder. I was involved in direct fire for about 30 seconds.”

Lt. Scott Brassard climbed the ladder to try to free DesRuisseaux.

“I could see him face to face for about 20 seconds,” DesRuisseaux said. “I kept yelling at him to ‘dump the ladder, dump the ladder.’ They were trying to free me up but I knew there was no way it was going to work. I was flailing, and knew I was still in the window.”

Firefighter Joshua Charpentier noticed heavy fire coming from the second floor and decided to knock the ladder away from the building to get DesRuisseaux out of the flames

“I remember falling, vividly,” DesRuisseaux. “It was the best feeling, because I knew I had a chance.”

DesRuisseaux vaguely recalled another person being there, a man not in firefighter’s gear, working to help him.

He said that as state fire officials began investigating the incident, body camera footage from first responders confirmed his memory. But it wasn’t until this past September, when Murrell stopped by Central Fire Station, that the two met.

The resolution from the city honors Murrell for arriving at the scene before firefighters and alerting fire crews that elderly residents who lived in the building may be inside.

He noticed DesRuisseaux stuck on the top of the ladder, saw firefighters struggling to reach him and ran over “against the extreme heat” and helped knock the ladder to the ground.

Desruisseaux’s voice trembled as he read aloud the lines, “If not for the heroic actions of Mr. Murrell, Captain DesRuisseaux would not be with us today.”

Murrell said, “If I had to, I would do it again.”

In a social media post Wednesday, Mayor Joyce Craig said Murrell risked his life to save DesRuisseaux, “and for that, we are eternally grateful.”