When smoke alarms erupted at the Holiday Inn on Penrose Avenue in South Philadelphia on Wednesday night, Sgt. Joseph Boyle did not wait around for the elevators to come back online. He climbed 12 floors, hoisted a guest who uses a wheelchair onto his back, and carried the man down a tight stairwell to safety.
Boyle later described the guest as a double amputee. By the time firefighters reached the lobby, the man was already outside, waiting in Boyle’s patrol car. The sergeant, who told reporters he had recently returned from a military deployment in Africa, brushed off any suggestion that he was a hero.
The fire started on the ground floor of the Holiday Inn on Penrose Avenue, triggering an evacuation that sent Boyle and hotel security knocking on doors up and down the high-rise. Body-camera video shows officers and hotel staff moving through hallways as alarms blare and, with elevators shut down for safety, Boyle telling a man on the 12th floor, “I’m going to carry you out,” before hoisting him up and starting the long walk down. Those moments are captured in reporting by 6abc.
12-Floor Carry In A Tight Stairwell
Boyle later said the trip down “was not as long as you’d think, gravity was working for us,” though he noted that the narrow stairwells and a few guests who did not seem in a rush made the evacuation tougher than it needed to be. He added that this was not his first time pulling someone from a fire and that he hoped it would be his last. The body-camera footage and Boyle’s on-camera remarks are shown in coverage by 6abc.
Where It Happened
The incident unfolded at the Holiday Inn at 2033 Penrose Avenue, a hotel tucked between the South Philadelphia sports complex and Philadelphia International Airport. The property lists its address and facility details on its official site as the Holiday Inn Philadelphia Arpt‑Stadium Area, confirming the location, per IHG.
What Officials Say
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, and city officials have not released additional details about injuries or how the blaze started. Boyle emphasized that officers are often the first ones on the scene and said preserving life is the department’s primary mission, again rejecting the “hero” label.
