A fire victim’s survival is seen as a modern miracle.

When Nkinyam Ngoa was pulled from a burning Huron Street townhouse on July 27, firefighters expected the worst.

But not only did he survive, the speed of his recovery is being called a medical marvel.

“He regained health through the miraculous health care here,” says fire prevention officer Frank Galera.

He says he was on the brink of death. “It was very, very dim.”

On Saturday, Ngoa was back to thank emergency personnel whose fast worked and quick thinking saved his life.

Ngoa was trapped in his upstairs bedroom where fire and smoked blocked both escape routes.

It wasn’t the flames, but the intense smoke that impacted him the most.

His lungs were black and the carbon monoxide in his bloodstream was twice what is often lethal.

"You'll be sitting at home and you'll hear a fire truck go by and you'll think, ‘There's a fire going on.’ But you never really think about the families, you know, the people involved. But, after all this, it's changed the way you see all that, naturally. I mean, these guys are life savers and they saved my life," Ngoa says.

Rescuers say it was continuity of care and quick thinking that made the difference. First, with fire and EMS performing CPR on the lawn on his townhouse. Then hospital staff in London decided to send him to Hamilton Health Sciences Centre where a hyperbaric chamber helped pull the carbon monoxide out of his blood.

Ngoh’s family, originally from Cameroon, came from New York where his father Stan works for the United Nations.  

"We're especially grateful to the community for stepping up and trying to help him out,” Stan says.

The family met the emergency personnel at an event organized by Galera at Oxbury mall Saturday. The event raised funds to replace the items Ngoa lost in the fire.  Galera says he lost virtually everything including his computer.

Ngoa, a web design and programming student at Fanshawe College, says he’ll stay and continue his studies.

And Saturday’s event was also an opportunity to talk about fire safety.

Galera says residents should always have a fire escape plan in place.