DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) – A Davenport man and his fiancé are being credited for saving the lives of three children trapped on the second floor of a burning duplex in Davenport Tuesday morning.
Dan Freitag and Joeanna Moore could be found with friends at their usual after-work hangout spot, Stompbox Brewing, on the riverfront in Davenport Tuesday evening.
However, it was no ordinary day for these two as fellow patrons tossed the phrase “hero” when referring to the couple.
The day started around 5 a.m. for Moore after coincidentally waking up and looking out the kitchen and living room windows to see flames shooting from their neighbor’s home.
“I said some pretty colorful things, and said, Dan, the neighbor’s house is on fire,” Moore said. “And he jumped up, got his glasses on. I dialed 911, immediately.”
Freitag rushed to his neighbor’s home and banged on their doors to awaken the occupants inside the home, and as he did so, he could hear children calling for help from the second-floor window.
“I yelled up to them,” Freitag said. “Hey, can you guys get out? Can you get out? And they said, No, there’s no way out. I said, you guys got to jump like, Come on, jump out the window. I’ll catch you as best I can.”
The children were aged 15, 11 and 8, according to their mother, who was at work at the time of the fire.
Freitag said the 15-year-old helped his younger siblings out the window first before making the plunge himself.
One by one, Freitag caught the children as they jumped out of the second-story window to him waiting below.
Freitag recalls what was going through his mind when telling young kids to jump from a window to him waiting below.
“As soon as I heard him screaming…my first, you know, thought was get them out of there,” Freitag said. “How am I going to get them out, you know? And, yeah, just told them to jump and I’d catch them.”
Fire crews responded to the 9-1-1 call around 5:12 a.m. and arrived to the scene within a few minutes.
After a day of work, and now being able to relax with friends, Freitag and Moore reflect on the morning they became heroes.
“We’ve calmed down a lot, but we’re definitely freaked out,” Freitag said. “I mean, a house right next to you just bursting into flames. I mean, just scary, horrifying.”
Both Freitag and Moore do have experience with disasters, as they were in the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere, Illinois when it collapsed during a tornado in March 2023.
They say that experience may have helped them Tuesday morning when their neighbors faced their own disaster.
“I’m thankful that we’re both pretty levelheaded,” Moore said. “And know how to handle an emergency, and are able to help other people when it matters.”
All three children were taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries, according to the Davenport Fire Department.
Later that day, the mother told TV6 her 15-year-old son had to be taken to Iowa City for further treatment while his younger siblings were released from Genesis East.
