MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Twins draft pick, Travis Adams, saved a Fort Myers man from a house fire while in town for spring training.
According to local news outlet in Fort Myers, Florida, WINK, shortly after 6 p.m. on Monday the Fort Myers Fire Department responded to a call on Arlington Street. Moments before, neighbors rushed into the burning residence in hopes of saving anyone who was stuck inside.
Adams was staying nearby and didn’t know the owner of the residence, a man called “Howard,” prior to the fire. However, when he heard a loud bang on Monday night he rushed into action.
The 24-year-old told WINK he immediately ran out of the house to see if anyone needed to be pulled out.
“I ran and kind of asked if, like, anyone was in the house and whatnot,” Adams said. “Like no one knew and so me and the guy went to the front door and started like knocking on it. And like someone had to break in the front window. And, like, I think they knew who was in there. He was yelling “Howard, your house is on fire, get out.”
Adams tried the front door, but entry into the home proved to be more difficult than he initially thought.
“We couldn’t like get in. And so I had to go around. And let’s see, there’s another door. And so there was a door on the side. So I end up like tearing a little bit little part of the fence down and get back there and we end up getting the door open and kind of moving some stuff out of the way of that door and getting him out,” Adams told WINK. “My goal was just to help him out of the house because I didn’t know like how much of the house is on fire or, you know, what was on fire. I saw a big old blaze and fire and smoke coming from the house.”
Eventually Adams and three other neighbors were able to pull Howard to safety.
Many are hailing the baseball player as a hero, but he thinks otherwise.
“I don’t really think of myself as a hero, but just tried to do as much as possible and did the right thing,” Adams said.
Adams was drafted by the Minnesota Twins during the sixth round in 2021. Adams was assigned to the Wichita Wind Surge in April 2023, which is a a Double-A affiliate team of the Twins.