William Rosado couldn't stop his tears Wednesday when he saw Tampa firefighter Mark Neal.

He cried for what he had lost Tuesday night: a 3-year-old son who died when flames and smoke engulfed the mobile home Rosado shared with his wife and two children. And he cried for what he had left: a 23-month-old son, clinging to life.

"Thank you," Rosado, 33, told Neal, as he crumpled into his arms.

It was Neal who pulled the lifeless body of Gavin Rosado from trailer No. 113 at Britts Mobile Home Park, at 3125 W Hillsborough Ave. Neal, who has a 2-year-old son, cried as he embraced Rosado.

In his hands, Rosado clutched a wooden plaque that had a picture of a young boy and the partial Bible text, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for.'' He had salvaged it from the charred remains.

Rosado spoke of his surviving son, Sebastian, who is in Tampa General. " He's really bad. I'm hoping he pulls through it, because I don't want to bury two babies this weekend. Just one is enough."

When the fire started Tuesday night, neighbors called 911, but then grew anxious. Tampa Fire Rescue station No. 12 sat just across the street. A neighbor ran to the station. Neal was asleep when he heard a knock on the window.

Neal ran over and spotted Rosado standing on the hitch of the mobile home. The distraught father was screaming into the window for his sons. Neal broke out the window and dived in.

He found a bunk bed and searched the bottom first. Empty. Then the top. That's where he found Gavin. He passed his limp body out the window.

Neal said he wanted to go back, but the heat was too intense. By then, firefighter Tim Fultz had made his way through the front door of the mobile home and rescued 1-year-old Sebastian from another room. In all, 20 firefighters battled the blaze.

Rosado and the children's mother, Lisa Smith, told investigators that they had been burning candles to save on their electric bill. The cause of the fire has not been determined.