Suzanne_Marques's Blog

I had the chance to meet one woman saved by the firefighter who was killed in the explosion.  Brent Lovrein saved her and two of her coworkers.

Her name is Janet and she just turned 21 a few days ago.  I can hardly call her a woman.  She's a girl who just entered adulthood. :)  

She celebrated with a birthday party this past Saturday, but her most precious gift was recieved yesterday.  A firefighter saved her life, but lost his own.  What a bittersweet series of events.

When I went to meet her at her home this morning, she looked tired, weary, in shock.  Janet took me through the events that happened.  She had heard a boom or bang while she was working.  She went outside and noticed some businesses nearby were closed.  She was on her lunchbreak so she went to Quizno's.  That's when she began to smell gas. 

She was going back to work when she asked firefighter Brent Lovrein what was going on and what to do.  He told her to go back into work and stay inside.  Janet says, he pushed the door closed on her and moments later there was the blast that claimed his life.  She told me all of this in a bit of a haze.  I could see as she spoke, her brain was still working to process it.  (Does a person ever?)

I asked what she was doing before we arrived at her home.  She says she was looking up information on the web about the man who saved her life.  Our cameras rolled as she found Brent Lovrein's photo on the LAFD's news blog.  She whispered she knew those eyes, as her own filled with tears. 

This is when her emotions began to hit her.  She said she felt like an organ recipient.  How an organ donor gives of themselves... something that's impossible to repay back.  It's a bond only normally felt by mothers, fathers and their children. She feels he is connected to her.  Someone who didn't know her made sure she was safe as he risked his own.

May her life - which has really just begun - be lived to the fullest.  May she celebrate his gift of life.