Obviously NOT A Graduate of Needham High School

Al Pierre was just passing by the fire on Blue Hill Avenue yesterday. It wasn't his job to stop and help. And a fire is at least as scary as, say, a guy in a suit at a Needham, MA pizza joint. Hanging out in a burning building is probably even more uncomfortable than being left out when the Needham High honor roll appears in the local paper.

Fortunately, Al Pierre isn't from Needham.

"I was driving by, and I saw smoke and a lady on the porch screaming. I had to get that baby."

He climbed up a pole up the side of the burning house, stood on the second-floor balcony, and encouraged a panicking woman to drop a baby into his arms. He then helped two women climb down from the third floor balcony to safety on the ground.

The people in this Mattapan neighborhood call him a hero.

In Needham, he'd probably be under arrest for trespassing.