PUBLIC SAFETY | FIRE

RETIRING FIREFIGHTER REUNITED WITH GIRL HE SAVED 27 YEARS AGO

Saving lives is at the core of everything firefighters do. For one group of Tyler firefighters, a rescue also changed their lives.

Early during the morning of May 8, 1993, the Tyler Fire Department was called to a structure fire. Jim Mullicane and his fellow firefighters frantically searched the burning home for Raniqua Franklin, age 3. Mullicane went into the burning home a second time. He found Raniqua motionless and not breathing.

Firefighter Mike Willis ripped a curtain off a nearby window and wrapped little Raniqua Franklin as Mullicane shared his oxygen tank with her as they escaped. After bringing her to safety, he heard, “She has a pulse!”

Mullicane has never forgotten Raniqua and often thinks of her. Raniqua has never forgotten Mullicane and the heroes who saved her life.

Fast-forward 27 years later, Mullicane is ready to hang up his helmet. As part of Mullicane’s impending retirement, a reunion was arranged under the guise of a meeting at Tyler’s Station 1.

Raniqua Franklin and Jim Mullicane embrace during their reunion 27 years after he helped rescue her from a house fire.

Mullicane walked into Station 1 and began wondering if they were up to something. When he looked into a conference room and saw a video camera, he was overwhelmed. Raniqua and several of Mullicane’s colleagues who had helped make the rescue possible were all there to celebrate Mullicane’s retirement and a long-awaited reunion.

Mullicane refused to take all the credit though. When he retold the story, he pointed out how each of his fellow firefighters had worked to save Raniqua. Afterward, three generations of the Franklins celebrated with the families of the firefighters who had changed their lives all those years ago.