Fire prevention info put to good use
Glace Bay teen, siblings escape house fire unharmed
GLACE BAY — A Cape Breton fire chief had been waiting for a good story resulting from fire prevention efforts.
On Monday he saw first-hand the result of those efforts when a teenage girl rescued herself and her siblings from their burning home.
After the ordeal, the teen informed Glace Bay Volunteer Fire Department Chief John Chant that her ability to rescue the family was a result of what she learned from firefighters in the classroom.
“We’ve been going into the school system for so long that I was hoping we’d get one of these good luck stories before I actually retired,” said Chant.
The fire department responded to a structure fire at 58 Concord St., Glace Bay at 11:03 a.m. on Monday.
After the fire was contained, a 15-year-old girl who lives in the house approached Chant.
‘She came over and was going to give me a hug but I was full of water, so she gave me the knuckles and said, ‘thank you,’" he said.
“She told me because of our fire department going into the schools to teach the kids, she knew how to save herself and her sister.”
Chant said the teenager, her 12-year-old brother and her 10-yearold sister were all at home when the fire started.
The teenager was upstairs in her bedroom when she smelled smoke and went downstairs to investigate. She discovered the kitchen was on fire. The teen went back up the stairs and alerted her brother and sister.
“Their cat just had new kittens,” Chant said. “They gathered the kittens in a laundry basket and the brother made it down the stairs out the front door.”
Meanwhile the teen and her sister tried to get down the stairs but the smoke had gotten increasingly worse.
Chant said the girl told him she didn’t panic, that’s when she remembered what she learned from the firefighters — if the stairwell is full of smoke, go back into your bedroom, shut the door behind you, and if there’s a roof outside the window, crawl out and sit on the roof.
“That’s how we got them, from the porch roof,” he said.
A firefighter rescued the mother cat and Chant checked to see if the cat needed oxygen.
“I checked her pupils, nostrils and teeth to make sure she didn’t take too much (smoke) in,” he said.
The kitchen was substantially damaged and there was smoke damage throughout the rest of the house.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Chant, who has been with the fire department for 27 years — seven as chief, said the fire prevention information has been provided to elementary school students long before he was a firefighter. About 10 years ago, firefighters brought the program to junior and high school studentss as well.
The teenage girl also told Chant she keeps her room clean so exits aren’t blocked.
“She had it down to a system and did really well,” he said.
Chant also paid tribute to the teen on the fire department’s Facebook page.
“She is a true hero in our eyes,” he posted.