A father from Woodbridge, Virginia, almost died rescuing his daughter from a burning home in Missouri.
Dominic Walker, 30, drove to a suburb of St. Louis to pick up his 4-year-old daughter, Mariah, who was visiting family with her mother.
Just after Walker arrived, a gas explosion set a home on fire, trapping Mariah and another girl inside.
Walker and another man rushed into the burning home and found them underneath the collapsed roof.
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"My son with his bare hands – bare hands – pulled the roof off of his daughter's face with the gentleman holding him to give him strength," said Walker’s mother, Desrene Barr.
Walker's younger brother Jante Garey calls it a miracle.
“The roof was on fire, but it was protecting them from the rest of the fire, so she didn't suffer as much as my brother did. Only her face got burned,” Garey said. “She got first-degree burns on her face. She's going through surgery for those. She can't see at the moment."
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Walker suffered third-degree burns on half of his body and is hospitalized in a medically induced coma.
“When I got here, I saw my son,” Barr said from the hospital. “I almost told them, 'That's not my son,' because I couldn't recognize my own child. He was burned so badly."
Walker has had two surgeries, including skin grafts to repair his face and hands, his family said. He likely will need at least one more surgery. He’ll likely have to relearn how to walk and talk.
"He'll risk it all for something that he loves," Garey said.
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