Only on 25: Hero runs into burning building to rescue girlfriend of 3 months and her son

NORTH CONWAY, N.H. — While a lot of women may be looking for their knight in shining armor, a Pembroke resident may have found one. Her heroic boyfriend first carried her son out of a burning building and then went back to get her.

Their nightmare vacation at Red Jacket Mountain View Resort began when Paul Bevis’s alarm woke him up and he saw their third-floor room full of smoke.

“Paul decided he was going to jump over the third-floor railing of the balcony and dropped down to the second floor,” said Meghan Beane.

“Then I had her drop her kid to me, and I ran him out to safety, came back for her. There was another family dropping their kids down to me,” said Bevis.

The heroic acts were just beginning as he ran back into the burning building for his girlfriend of just three months.

“They wouldn’t let me run back in, but I pushed them out of my way so I wasn’t leaving my girlfriend in there,” said Bevis.

But the superhero would need a miracle cape to save his girlfriend, who was still on the third floor, inches away from flames.

“He screamed, you need to jump, and there was an officer down on the ground level on the grass and he screams, you need to jump now, and there was just this loud noise and I just jumped. I don’t know how he caught me because when I went over I didn’t go directly down,” said Beane. “I just dropped to get out of there before...I didn’t know what was exploding.”

Once they got to safety, the superhero needed rescue in a different way.

“When I did all that I was in my underwear, and thank God some guy over the parking lot had a pair of sweatpants for me to put on...a very nice man,” said Bevis.

The three are safe, but her 5-year-old son needed to spend eight hours at the hospital before his carbon monoxide levels went from 12, down to a more normal level of 5.

But the psychological trauma remains.

“My son asked if that hotel that we were staying at was going to catch on fire too,” said Beane.

Other than being upset there were no smoke alarms and sprinklers in their room, this trio is just happy no one died in the fire, partially thanks to Bevis.

Medics transported a total of four people to the hospital, including two firefighters, but they are all expected to be okay.

As far as no smoke alarms and sprinklers, the North Conway fire chief addressed that at a press conference Sunday. He said there were alarms when he arrived on the scene, but they went out.

The chief believes the fire burned a circuit in the wing where they were staying. He says that section also didn’t have any sprinklers, since that part of the building was built before sprinkler requirements.

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