Three teenagers from upstate New York were out for junior prom night fun when they became heroes instead.
It began when they were driving through the town of Marcy and saw a glow in the sky.
“I thought it was a bonfire at first,” Aiden Kane, 17, a junior at Whitesboro High School, said, according to WKRC-TV.
Instead, it was a disaster in the making.
“I never thought it would be a house fire right there with no cops or firefighters around, it’s just crazy that we were the first ones there,” he said.
The garage of a house was on fire, leading Kane and his friends to alert the homeowner and his family.
The young men alerted the family by pounding on the front door, according to WKTV-TV.
“I grabbed the girls and ran them across the street to my girlfriend, who was comforting them, then I ran back across the lawn where I saw the dad, and we just went away from the fire,” Kane said.
As Kane acted, so did Tyler Sodja, who checked to ensure no one was in the garage, and Donato Jellenich, who called 911.
Have you ever witnessed a house fire?
“It’s just like fight or flight; you just have to react,” Sodja said.
“I knew that I saw the little kids when he got them out of the house, and I just knew we did the right thing when I saw those little girls run out of the house because if that were myself in that situation, I would hope someone would help and alert me. And I’m just grateful the family is OK,” Sodja said.
Kane, who aspires to join the New York State Police, said he did not see himself as a hero.
“It wasn’t the building that was on fire, though it could have ended up spreading to it. I’m sure someone else would have gotten to it before me. I am sure I stopped their house from burning down. I don’t know if I am a lifesaver, but we definitely helped with his house at least,” Kane said.
“If they didn’t do this, if they didn’t get everyone out and call 911, it may have been three to four minutes before we got there,” Maynard Fire Chief Jared Pearl said, according to the New York Post.
“And by then, the house would have been fully involved,” he said.
Kane said tips from his father, a police and EMS chief, came in handy.
“I’ve even been on a few calls with him,” Kane said. “I knew we had to get the family out.”
“It felt good to know we did something good for someone else, but we never expected it to get attention,” Kane said
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