HOUMA, La. — “Somebody upstairs is on my side,” said 80-year-old Navy veteran Kenneth Cobb with a laugh. Wednesday, somebody on the ground was on his side too.
That day, Cobb’s son Kris Posecai left their Houma home to prepare for his 1-year-old daughter’s birthday. They had both moved in with Cobb just weeks before to help him through treatment for two forms of cancer.
“We got a call that there was a fire, and I said you’ve got to be kidding me,” said Posecai. Cobb himself fell unconscious at some point. “I can’t tell you where I was, nothing,” Cobb said. “Everything’s blank.”
Posecai rushed back to the house. “They stopped me at the door,” he said, “and that was my biggest concern was where’s Dad, where’s Dad?”
The next thing Cobb remembers is waking up in the hospital. With a laugh, he said his first thought was, “What in the world am I doing here.” Once Posecai got to the hospital, he was told another man involved in the fire had been taken there too and was being treated in another room.
“That’s the man who saved your Daddy’s life,” he was told.
That is when he met Jeremy Trahan, Deputy Command Chief for the private security company Wilkes Protection. Wednesday, Trahan and his boss, CEO Issac Wilkes, were coming back from Wilkes’ nearby home after work.
“We pulled up on the corner here and noticed some smoke coming from the back of the house,” said Trahan. Wilkes called 911, while Trahan checked the windows and found they were too hot to touch. He shouldered the door open and saw Cobb through the smoke.
“So I cleared my lungs, took a deep breath, and jumped into action,” he said.
He grabbed both Cobb and his wheelchair and brought them outside. Firefighters pulled up shortly after and put out the fire.
“They said it was heavy smoke,” said Capt. Raymond McGuire, Houma Fire Department Investigator, “So he could have gotten more smoke inhalation.” He believes Trahan’s quick thinking may have saved Cobb’s life.
“He kept his cool and was able to get him out, that’s a good guy there,” said McGuire. Trahan credits being raised to “stand up for your fellow human beings” and “help out when you can.”
The State Fire Marshal is still investigating what caused the fire. The home will need to be completely gutted. Posecai said everything inside “that didn’t burn or melt is covered in smoke damage.”
Above all, though, he is grateful to Trahan for possibly saving his father’s life. Cobb is now staying with his daughter as he recovers. “My conscious and subconscious aren’t quite back together yet,” he said. “But it’s close.”
Trahan’s company plans to set up a Gofundme to help Cobb’s family replace their possessions.
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