4-year-old Theo Smail donates piggy bank's contents to burned Stuart firefighter

STUART, Fla. - The Station 23 fire rescue team members are thinking of their "brother." 

Firefighter Jahwann McIntyre suffered second-degree burns over more than half of his body last week, inside a burning house in Stuart.

His coworker, firefighter Matt Sierra, said McIntyre and Station 23 have received an outpouring of well-wishes.

"Overwhelming," said Sierra. "You hear that a lot, but it really has been overwhelming."

But perhaps none of the well-wishers are so young as one little boy from Stuart. Four-year-old Theo Smail's mother, Jacqueline, said he heard of Jahwann's story, and decided he wanted to help in his own small way.

"All of a sudden, Theo just took his money, put it aside out of his save bank and said, 'I want to give this to Jahwann, the firefighter,'" she recalled.

Sierra said when Theo first walked up to the Station 23 door, holding his piggy banks, Matt wasn't sure what Theo was doing.

"He handed me two little bags of coins that he had counted up," remembered Sierra. "He handed them to me, and turned around and started walking away. I was like, 'Wait a minute, buddy, come back,'" he laughed.

When Sierra asked him what the piggy bank was for, the four-year-old had to explain.

"Because Jahwann is hurt, and I wanted to give him the money to feel better," Theo said, simply.

The Martin County Facebook page said McIntyre has been removed from his ventilator and he's breathing on his own. He is continuing to be monitored at the Jackson Memorial Burn Unit in Miami.

Sierra said maybe McIntyre's road to recovery will be sped up by one little boy's prayers.

"For a kid to do that nowadays, it was just an act of pure kindness, of pure compassion," said Sierra.