With the help of Facebook, a former Massachusetts firefighter was finally able to answer the burning question of what happened to the baby girl he saved in 1972. For nearly a half-century, a tiny spark of a memory smoldered in former city firefighter Albert M. Toney Jr.’s head. In the memory, he is outside a burning apartment on Aug. 5, 1972, manning the fire rescue vehicle he drove to the scene, when a police officer shoves a tiny baby girl into his arms amidst shouts from neighbors that the child is not breathing. As he retells the story of how he saved her life, Sabrina Simms quietly listens. For her part, she’s always known that she once, “died.” The next to youngest of six kids living with her mom at the time, in the confusion of the fire, she’d been left in her crib breathing toxic smoke that nearly killed her. She’s pretty sure her then-6-year-old sister was playing with matches under a bed and that started the fire. The event became a blip on the radar of her history. She was too young to have a memory of it at all. But Toney’s mind wandered back sometimes and, after retiring from a career a few years ago, he was perusing an old scrapbook when he came across an article from the Aug. 12, 1972, edition of The Evening Gazette, where he saw himself 49 years younger, before then-Deputy Fire Chief James Nally who was handing him a commendation for saving Sabrina’s life. Toney wondered whether Simms' was forever impacted by the smoke inhalation or whether she was perfectly fine, living somewhere happy and healthy as he hoped. He decided to try to find out. Not one for social media, Toney turned to his son and asked him to work some magic on Facebook. Within two weeks, Toney was on the phone with Simms who was a bit “apprehensive” about the cold call asking if she’d been in a fire. That was before COVID-19 kicked in and their plans to meet up got put off until now — 49 years later. 📷: Christine Peterson, Telegram & Gazette