DANVERS - It was early New Year's Day 1980 when rookie firefighter David DeLuca spotted an 8-year-old boy under his bed in a smoke-filled apartment, gave him CPR and saved his life.
Yesterday, for the first time in nearly 28 years, Lt. DeLuca and the boy - now a 36-year-old father of two - met at fire headquarters on High Street.
Michael Bouzianis of Danvers doesn't remember the fire that nearly claimed his life.
"I just remember waking up in the hospital," he said.
Yesterday's brief meeting capped DeLuca's career, as the fire prevention officer is retiring Jan. 11. DeLuca said the rescue stayed with him all these years, and he even made it a point to never work a New Year's Eve shift after that.
"Always before I retired, it was something I wanted to do," DeLuca told Bouzianis about wanting to meet him, "and I can't thank you enough for being here."
"Not a problem," said Bouzianis, who works for a landscaping company in Boxford.
Bouzianis' family moved to Topsfield a year after the fire, though DeLuca managed to keep tabs on him through a longtime friend, Bouzianis' uncle.
Back then, the fire touched the community, and a fund was set up to cover the family's medical expenses, according to an old Salem Evening News article.
DeLuca said the fire stuck out in a career that included the response to the Nov. 22 Danversport chemical plant explosion, for which the department received statewide recognition.
"It's not often in your career you get to save a life," DeLuca said.
'A boy and a girl inside'
DeLuca, a lifelong Danvers resident, had been working for the Swampscott Fire Department for about four years when an opening in Danvers came up in December 1979.
He had been on the department for two weeks when firefighters responded to a general-alarm fire in a basement apartment at 11 Riverside Ave. Firefighter Billy Ryan and Capt. Arnold Cyr got Janice Bouzianis, Michael's mother, out.
"They said there was a boy and a girl still inside," DeLuca said.
DeLuca and firefighter Gerry Mills went to search the apartment.
"I remember going into the living room, and your bedroom was on the lefthand side," DeLuca told Bouzianis yesterday. "I went into the bedroom and Gerry went to the left, I went to the right. I looked in the closet, and I checked on the bed, and then under the bed, and that's where I found you."
Yesterday, for the first time in nearly 28 years, Lt. DeLuca and the boy - now a 36-year-old father of two - met at fire headquarters on High Street.
Michael Bouzianis of Danvers doesn't remember the fire that nearly claimed his life.
"I just remember waking up in the hospital," he said.
Yesterday's brief meeting capped DeLuca's career, as the fire prevention officer is retiring Jan. 11. DeLuca said the rescue stayed with him all these years, and he even made it a point to never work a New Year's Eve shift after that.
"Always before I retired, it was something I wanted to do," DeLuca told Bouzianis about wanting to meet him, "and I can't thank you enough for being here."
"Not a problem," said Bouzianis, who works for a landscaping company in Boxford.
Bouzianis' family moved to Topsfield a year after the fire, though DeLuca managed to keep tabs on him through a longtime friend, Bouzianis' uncle.
Back then, the fire touched the community, and a fund was set up to cover the family's medical expenses, according to an old Salem Evening News article.
DeLuca said the fire stuck out in a career that included the response to the Nov. 22 Danversport chemical plant explosion, for which the department received statewide recognition.
"It's not often in your career you get to save a life," DeLuca said.
'A boy and a girl inside'
DeLuca, a lifelong Danvers resident, had been working for the Swampscott Fire Department for about four years when an opening in Danvers came up in December 1979.
He had been on the department for two weeks when firefighters responded to a general-alarm fire in a basement apartment at 11 Riverside Ave. Firefighter Billy Ryan and Capt. Arnold Cyr got Janice Bouzianis, Michael's mother, out.
"They said there was a boy and a girl still inside," DeLuca said.
DeLuca and firefighter Gerry Mills went to search the apartment.
"I remember going into the living room, and your bedroom was on the lefthand side," DeLuca told Bouzianis yesterday. "I went into the bedroom and Gerry went to the left, I went to the right. I looked in the closet, and I checked on the bed, and then under the bed, and that's where I found you."
Bouzianis listened as the firefighter described how he put the unconscious boy on his bed, took off his oxygen mask and performed CPR. Firefighter Eddie McLaughlin took him out.
"That was it," DeLuca said.
The search for Bouzianis' sister was called off after it was learned she was staying at her aunt's.
Janice Bouzianis, 31 at the time, suffered second-degree burns and smoke inhalation, according to news articles. The chief at the time, Leland Martin, described her burns as the worst he had ever seen. Those burns eventually healed, Michael Bouzianis said, and his mother is 60 and lives in Amesbury. His sister lives in Newburyport.
Michael Bouzianis wound up in intensive care at Massachusetts General Hospital for smoke inhalation, and he was there for about a month.
"I couldn't talk or anything," he said. "My father was there, and it took awhile for my voice to come back. I couldn't really walk or anything like that for a little while."
The Bouzianis family moved to Topsfield, and Bouzianis graduated from Masconomet Regional High School in 1989. He moved back to Danvers in 1994, and like DeLuca, he has two children, Taylor, 9, and Mike Jr., 8 months.
In a twist, DeLuca and his wife, Debbie, also have a daughter named Taylor, 25. Their older daughter is Dena Chase, 30, of Danvers, and she was about a year old at the time of the fire.
There was a lot of talk when Bouzianis' mother came home with burns. Bouzianis' grandfather saved the newspaper clippings. Michael Bouzianis' daughter has asked about the scars on her grandmother's arm.
"Really, over time, no one ever spoke about it anymore. It kind of got brushed away," Bouzianis said.
DeLuca and Bouzianis arranged yesterday's meeting after The Salem News gave Bouzianis the firefighter's cell phone number.
"The day before I left, I wanted to see you," DeLuca said to Bouzianis. "This is like Christmas."
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