Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office Recognizes 2 Women for Saving 3 Toddlers From a Burning Seffner Home

Collecting an award was the furthest thing from their minds when Toni Dye and Kelly Heath got word from the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office that their heroic efforts in January had not been forgotten.

From a burning mobile home in Seffner the two women saved three children “as fire and smoke began to billow out of [their] trailer,” reads the report from the first-quarter Awards Recognition Ceremony held March 16 at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office.

“They didn’t care about their own safety,” said Dye’s father, Anthony. “They just did what needed to be done and worried about the consequences later. They were more concerned about the children’s safety than their own.”

Indeed, in receiving the Citizen’s Award for their quick thinking in January, at the Larrett Mobile Home Park off Black Dairy Road in Seffner, it was noted that the two women rescued the three children, ages 1, 2 and 3, “without hesitation.”

“I drive a tow truck for a living,” Heath said. “I was on my way home and I noticed flames coming out of a trailer so I stopped and ran over there to knock on the door to see if anybody was home. I pushed the door open  and I saw the three kids in the living room.”

That’s when Dye stepped in.

“I heard [Kelly Heath] screaming and I ran over there,” Dye said. “She started handing me the kids, one by one.”

“I’d do it again, for anybody,” Dye added.

The two women, who also live it the mobile home park, said it was nice to each receive the Citizen’s Award but also that it was unnecessary.

“When they called about the award I told them, ‘You need to go get it and realize what you did,’ ” Anthony Dye said.

At the time, Heath said, “I thought, ‘Did that really happen?’ Everything happened so quick. I couldn’t even tell the officers what happened, it happened so fast.”

The women said the children’s father they know only as “Nate” and that  he was not in the home when they executed the rescue.

“If I didn’t see the kids when he was moving in I wouldn’t have even have known they lived there,” Dye said.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Citizen’s Award is granted to citizens “who have assisted law enforcement officers in carrying out their duties, risked their lives to help or save other citizens or law enforcement officers, or contributed to [the office’s] worthwhile cause by other means.”

Also receiving the Citizen’s Award at the March 16 ceremony were:

• Mark Bowman and Ken Nailling of Brandon, who thwarted house thieves in action. Bowman in January spotted a burglary in progress in his Buckhorn subdivision and immediately called 911. He then called Nailling, director of the community’s Neighborhood Watch, to report the incident. “As the three suspects fled the house, Mr. Nailling followed them at a safe distance and updated the dispatchers with the vehicle’s description and location,” reads the award report. The two men later identified the suspects and the stolen goods are set to be returned to their owners.