He saved his brother from choking on beef jerky.

They helped save a man hanging out the window of a boarding house engulfed in flames on Wells Avenue in downtown Renton.

Thursday, the boy Bergen Till, and Renton fire Capt. Mike Proulx, Lt. Roy Luquette and firefighters Michael Bain, Marcus Rismiller and Nathan Blakeslee will be honored at the American Red Cross 14th Annual Heroes Breakfast in Seattle.

Here’s how the American Red Cross describes these life-saving heroics.

‘Red Cross ladies’

Eight-year-old Bergen Till was playing with his godfather and his three-year-old brother Neville one night last spring while his mom made dinner. Neville was snacking on beef jerky and started to choke.

Before the adults could respond, Bergen ran across the room, spun his brother around, clasped his fists just below Neville’s sternum and started to perform textbook-perfect abdominal thrusts. The food dislodged, and the Neville started breathing normally again.

When his mother asked Bergen how he knew what to do, he told her that “two Red Cross ladies” had come to his school and taught his class. The year before, AmeriCorps youth program educators with the Red Cross had visited his elementary school for a basic-aid training demonstration, which includes what to do if someone chokes. The instructors showed Bergen where to put his hands and how to use the right amount of pressure.

Bergen, now 9 and the son of Dawn and Andrew Till, learned that life-saving skill while a second grader at Lakeridge Elementary School, his mother said in an interview.

Till initially had written a letter to the school’s principal, which then found its way to the American Red Cross.

“It was a complete surprise,” Till said. “I had no idea he had had the training.”

Afterward, Bergen was nonchalant about his rescue, she said, and went back to playing.

Now a student at Shadow Lake Elementary School in Maple Valley, Bergen will get out of school to receive the honor.

“He is so humble about it all,” said Till. “That is why I am so proud that he is being honored.

“He truly doesn’t think he did anything out of the ordinary,” she said.

Caught in a fire

In July 2009, the Renton Fire Station 11 team had responded to a number of smoke investigation calls due to holiday fireworks. But one call turned into a much larger incident and rescue.

Upon arriving at the boarding house in downtown Renton, firefighters could see flames in the second-story windows, and smoke poured from the building. Lt. Roy Luquette noticed a man sticking his head out of the second-floor window, apparently trapped by the flames. Working with Mike Bain and engine driver Marcus Rismiller, he moved an engine closer to the building and extended a rescue ladder to the victim in the window.

Bain climbed the ladder toward the victim, talking to him to keep him calm, while other firefighters entered the building with hoses to fight the flames from inside. He was only partly up the ladder when a burst of smoke surrounded the man in the window and poured out around him. Panicked, the man threw himself out the window and slid headfirst down the ladder toward Bain. The experienced firefighter held his balance and caught the falling man, helping him down the rest of the ladder and into the care of waiting rescue teams.

“The crew did an outstanding rescue and it worked out well,” said Battalion Chief Karl Rufener, with Renton Fire & Emergency Services Department

THE BREAKFAST

Fifteen heroes will be honored at the 14th Annual Heroes Breakfast, sponsored by Costco Wholesale, Thursday at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle. All proceeds will support disaster relief efforts in King County.