The choking smoke fills the room as the fire rages in the hallway. A 6-month-old Dawnielle Davison squirms in her crib, the scalding smoke filling her lungs. With only seconds to spare before the room bursts into flames, a figure clad in firefighting apparel bursts into the room, snatches the infant from her crib, and whisks her out of the burning home.

The man who rescued Davison from that burning building years ago is the now retired Mike Hughes, a Wenatchee firefighter of 30 years. Years after he rescued Davison from her burning home, he was curious as to how Davison had fared after the fire. He sent her a message on Facebook, and Davison quizzed him on the details of the fire to verify that he really was the one who had pulled her from that smoky room all those years ago.

“I haven’t really tracked down any body that I ever dealt with on the job,” Hughes said. “I was always curious [about Davison], because the situation with her was so unique. I was curious about how she fared. One day I was sitting on my computer and thought, ‘I’ll look and see if she’s alive and kicking just for fun.’”

Since that day the two have kept in touch via Facebook.

“We do stay in contact, I have him on Facebook and I try to message him every now and then to see how he’s doing,” said Davison.

Davison invited Hughes to her Wenatchee High School graduation, which he attended Saturday at the Town Toyota Center.

“It was very fun for me to see the result of this good fire operation,” Hughes said about Davison’s graduation. “Graduating from high school is a real milestone for people.”

The fire all began with Davison’s two older brothers, who were playing with a Zippo lighter in their parent’s bedroom. They managed to catch the bed on fire, which then spread to the rest of the room and house when their father attempted to remove the bed from the room by pushing it out the window. The father, and two brothers, along with the family dog, managed to escape, but Davison was left in the house.

Hughes entered the burning building with a partner and began moving through a hallway when he received a call on the radio.

“I got a radio call call while we were in there fighting the fire that there might be somebody in there. I was gonna search it no matter what, that’s protocol,” Hughes said. “I went down the hallway and the bedroom door was open partially. The room was full of hot smoke all the way to the floor. Dawnielle was in there squirming like a worm. I snatched her up and went out the front door and handed her off to the first firefighter there.”

According to Hughes, the whole rescue operation went almost perfectly.

“Honestly, it’s the kind of firefighting and rescue operation the all firefighters would love to be able to do,” Hughes said. “It’s the dream rescue. Most would never get the opportunity.”

Hughes also emphasizes how rare it is to rescue someone from a burning building alive.

“I had pulled two other people out of burning structures during my [30-year] career and Dawnielle was the third fire victim that I pulled out of a fire. I think most firefighters never have the opportunity to rescue someone from a burning structure,” Hughes said.

Not all fire victims are as lucky as Davison, according to Hughes, she is extremely lucky to have survived.

“I’ve actually had a couple folks that have not fared well at all [after a fire]. I think that day Dawnielle ran into the right crew at the right time; I think the stars were aligned.  It’s rare to get them out of the house alive period,” Hughes said. “She dodged a bullet, she really dodged a bullet.”