Loganville Fruit Vendor Receives Award for His Bravery

Fire officials in believe if not for the quick and heroic actions of a local fruit vendor, Loganville resident Alan Herndon might not be here today.

According to Chief Danny Roberts, when Loganville Main Street fruit vendor Phillip Starnes saw the he didn’t hesitate.

“We got there within 3 minutes of the call coming in, but he got there before us and without regard for his own life he went in and saved the life of the man and his dog,” Roberts said.

For his actions, Starnes received an award at Thursday’s city council meeting in recognition of “his act of bravery in saving the life of Alan Herndon from a house fire on Aug. 13, 2011.”

A humble Starnes, more at home on Main Street behind his fruit and vegetable stand, was on hand at the meeting to receive the award from the Loganville fire chief.

According to Capt. Rick Morris of the t, when Starnes realized something was wrong at about 3:30 p.m. that afternoon back in the summer, he alerted authorities and then went to house next door, which was the home of Herndon’s mother, to see if Herndon was home. When she told him she thought her son was still in the house, asleep, Starnes went into the burning house and rescued Herndon as well as his dog. Morris said Herndon was still asleep, but Starnes was able to wake him and get him out.

The Loganville Fire Department and  responded to the fire and aggressively fought the blaze until the fire was out. Morris said it was thanks to the quick thinking of Starnes that no injuries were reported.

"We're lucky (Starnes) found him or we'd have lost Alan," Morris said.

Roberts said they delayed the award until this month because October is public safety month.

“We'll teach about 3,000 to 4,000 children this month. In this case, the home did not have a smoke detector or a working smoke detector,” Roberts said. “It shows how a simple smoke detector can save your life.”