Dave LaFerriere, a former firefighter who founded Firefighters for Healing after being burned while fighting a blaze, visits a young burn victim at a Minneapolis hospital.(Photo: KARE)

On a summer night in 2010, a backdraft — a sudden eruption of flame caused by oxygen-rich air in a building cavity — exploded next to Minneapolis firefighter Jake LaFerriere and partner Dennis Mack.

"The house pretty much blew up," said LaFerriere, 40. "There was a backdraft ... 30-foot fireballs."

The former firefighter said he'd been to 100 fires like this one, but this time, things went wrong. Very wrong. The backdraft blew him and his partner back 100 feet, he said.

Trapped on the third floor of the burning house in smoke too thick to see, LaFerriere, who had become separated from his partner, crawled and felt his way to a third-floor window.

He punched it out and jumped.  Mack  made his way to a doorway where other firemen found him and pulled him out.

"I thought I was cooked. It's a really scary feeling," said LaFerriere, who suffered second- and third-degree burns and an ankle fracture from the jump.

So started a journey that led LaFerriere to create Firefighters for Healing, a foundation to aid young burn victims. The journey continues Friday evening when he will be given the first Red Bandanna Hero Award — named after a man who saved about a dozen people after the 9/11 attacks.

Jake LaFerriere, founder of Firefighters for Healing. visits a young patient in the burns unit of a Minneapolis hospital. Friday, LaFerriere will receive the first Red Bandana Hero Award. (Photo: KARE)

The inspiration for Firefighters for Healing came from LaFerriere's own experiences — and some brave kids. While being treated at a hospital, LaFerriere met several children undergoing treatment for their own burn injuries. Two of them, brothers aged 3 and five, became his special buddies. Their family had become homeless and was living in a tent, which caught fire while one of the little boys was playing with a lighter.

The children's resilience led LaFarriere to found the non-profit foundation to support young survivors and their families.

The organization, said LaFerriere, whose injuries meant he could no longer work as a firefighter, has  raised more than $100,000, and 100% of the proceeds are used to support its work.

"I was in the burn unit a month and a half," he said. "I've had 12 surgeries. My hands are deteriorating every day and getting worse, but the pain motivates me to help kids and families," added the firefighter, whose ordeal also created enough stress to breakup his marriage, he said.

He added, "I look at people's situations outside of mine. A lot of people face cancers and other terminal diseases and use it to help people. I'm doing good and I'll keep pushing."

That bravery and energy that LaFerriere displays will be recognized on a national stage.

The Red Bandanna Hero Award is named for Welles Crowther, also known as "The Man in the Red Bandanna," who saved as many as 12 people, according to survivor accounts, after the attacks on New York City's World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

The award, which honors "bold men and women who have distinguished themselves by their courageous, selfless and often lifesaving actions," is the creation of American Heroes Channel, a spinoff of the Discovery Channel, and the Welles Remy Crowther Charitable Trust.

It will be given to LaFerriere during the Florida State-Boston College football game nationally televised on ESPN on Friday evening. Crowther attended Boston College, where he was a lacrosse player. Members of his family will be present for the game and the ceremony, which will take place during the second quarter.

"I feel undeserving to be honest with you," the former fighter said. "What happened to me is really coming full circle and I can't express the gratitude I have in my heart and soul."

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