Family recalls one of its own who died saving siblings

ATHENS - On New Year&#39;s Day, Anthony Sims&#39; family listened to him die -- desperate final gasps for air that came from inside a burning room in a woodframe house that was crumbling around him. <br> <br> As the family mourns his loss, they take comfort in knowing he died a hero. Moments before his death, Sims shoved his eleven-year-old brother, Demetrius, and his 19-year-old sister, Latoya, through a window to save their lives. <br> <br> Sims&#39; stepfather, Jerry Stokes, told the Athens Banner-Herald that Sims could have just thought of his own safety and gotten out, but he wasnted to make sure everyone else was safe first. <br> <br> Stokes said, ``That was just like him.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Family members say the 29-year-old Sims was just getting his life back together. A cousin&#39;s death had plunged him into depression, but he had returned to live with his family and was engaged. <br> <br> Their gas service disconnected, the family was relying on a small electric space heater for warmth in the winter. Fire officials believe the heater started the fire about 3 a.m. Tuesday. <br> <br> Stokes managed to get his wife and one young child out of the house. But the intensity of the heat told him there was no chance of getting to a bedroom where Sims and the other two children were sleeping. <br> <br> A television atop a dresser blocked the path to the bedroom window, an obstacle between safety and the three siblings trapped inside. <br> <br> From outside, Stokes watched Sims throw the television off the dresser, then shoot Demetrius and Latoya through the window, one at a time. Stokes says he caught a glimpse of the face of his stepson, still inside, just before the dresser collapsed and knocked Sims back. <br> <br> Firefighters arrived but couldn&#39;t help. Sims had laid on a bed, gasping for air, and the roof of the room collapsed on top of him. <br> <br> The family is staying a local motel, in a room paid for by charity. They had no insurance to cover their 116-year-old family home, and no policy even to cover the cost of burying Anthony Sims.

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