The Tarkington Volunteer Fire department is praising one of their own after he responded to a call on his own in hopes of saving a Grandmother and baby girl believed to be about nine months old.Captain Doc Sikes said he was at home when he got alerted to a mobile home on CR 2198 near Cleveland.“I know the area, I know the members of the department and where they live I was going to be the only one coming to this station anyway just because of work schedules,” Sikes said. “So I knew me waiting around for hopefully somebody else to show up would be pretty much out of the ordinary so I pretty much had it pre-determined that once I got to the station, I was just going to put my stuff on and go,” said Sikes.Sikes’ arrived on scene in a matter of minutes.“Any firemen that I know, that I pride myself in knowing would have made the exact same call,” Sikes saidTarkington Fire Chief Paul Gregory said Captain Sikes immediately went to work.“He put a ladder in the window where they confirmed the victims were last and made entry, found the Grandmother, pulled her to the window and that’s was about the same time the engine from here arrived and was able to assist getting her out to no avail, she was already deceased,” said Chief Gregory.Captain Sikes and his fellow firefighters went back in the mobile home to search for the baby girl but she too had died.“This is a very unfortunate circumstance for the fire department, for the family involved,” Sikes said.Chief Gregory told KPRC 2 He was proud of Sikes decision making.lot of times they say you should wait, but you have victims, especially a baby. These guys aren't waiting,” said Chief Gregory.Chief Gregory added that counselors and chaplains will be made available to anybody in his department who needed them.

According to the department, they received notice of a structure fire at the Pinewood Place mobile home park at approximately 12:22 p.m. Saturday.