Fairfax Board Honors Lifesavers in Lorton Fire

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors honored two Lorton residents Tuesday for his heroic actions during house fire over Easter weekend.

Bill Kim and his daughter, Faith, received recognitions from the board for .

When Faith saw smoke rising from the side of a house on the 7200 block of Forest Greens Drive that Saturday afternoon, Kim immediately drove down to the house to see if anyone was inside.

“Putting his own safety aside, Mr. Kim forged ahead through the smoke and entered through the front door to round up and rescue two adults, one child and their dog,” said Supervisor Gerry Hyland (Mount Vernon). “Your quick thinking and response to your daughter’s having given you the alert is certainly something that we don’t find too often.”

In a statement to the board, Kim said that he didn’t think too much at the time of the incident – he knew there wasn’t a lot of time, and so he just acted.

“The only that was going through my mind [was] that the first responders are always there, 24-7 … and because they couldn’t be there at that second, I couldn’t be a bystander,” he said. “I saw that something had to be done.”

Representatives from the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department also presented Kim with Citizen Lifesaving Awards for him and Faith.

The accidental two-alarm fire completely destroyed the house. It took 60 firefighters approximately 15 minutes to extinguish the blaze. One firefighter was taken to the hospital for observation.