These two young men are being hailed as heroes in Flint, Michigan, and rightfully so. They saved the life of their two year old sister on her birthday.

The day was supposed to be spent celebrating Brooklyn’s birthday that afternoon at the duplex where Keith and Brooklyn live near Fenton and Atherton roads.

Instead, Keith’s dad Matthew Burcar, 43, sang “Happy Birthday to you” to the little girl in the ambulance on the way to Hurley Medical Center.

If thirteen year old Keith Burcar hadn’t reacted the way he did, when he did, little Brooklyn’s birthday would have left a permanent scar on this young family.

Keith and his brother Thomas Corbett, 11, also were with the little ones in the fenced backyard, where Brooklyn was playing in a pile of leaves wearing a party hat just as the loose pitbull entered the yard, said Burcar.

The dog trotted past the other children and attacked the girl without warning — biting her on the top of her head several times and “shaking her like a doll,” according to a police report.

Without a worry about his own safety, Keith ran to Brooklyn’s aid. He stood over the dog’s stocky body, grabbing its neck in a chokehold until it let go of the girl, he said.

“If I was (thinking) I can’t remember,” he said.

Keaton heard the children’s “screams of terror” and ran to help.

“I could tell that he was struggling and I thought ‘my God, he’s going to get killed’ because his head was next to the dog’s head,” she said.

Thomas, Matthew Burcar and Keaton helped the injured girl and her brother get into the house as Keith’s grip on the dog loosened.

When the boy released the pitbull it went on to attack Keaton, who said, “I really thought I was going to die.”

She managed to get her body into the house while the dog ripped fist-sized holes and severed muscles in her arm, while Thomas and other neighbors beat the dog to get it to let go, she said.

I agree, these young men are heroes, in every sense of the term. They acted without hesitation in the face of danger, with no regard to their personal safety, only that of their sister and neighbor.

That this stray killing machine ignored everyone, including older children, and attacked the smallest and most vulnerable of them all, is a classic example of these beasts.

While the injuries and horrible memories are still to be dealt with by those attacked by this dog, fortunately it wasn’t able to cause more harm.

I’m glad the only fatality this dog produced will be it’s own.