Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Hero teen saves his brother after phone charger starts fire
Parents tell how schoolboy pulled Donnacha, 6, to safety
A TEENAGER is being hailed a hero after saving his younger brother when an overheated phone charger set his bed alight in their shared room.
Dualtach Mccauley, 15, leapt from his top bunk to pull six-year-old Donnacha to safety after hearing the younger boy’s screams from underneath him.
Donnacha was left with serious burns from the blaze, but Dualtach’s bravery potentially stopped the entire house from catching fire.
Mum Nicola Mccauley revealed how she had put her younger son to bed earlier in the evening and he was followed by his older brother later.
However, just before herself and husband Ryan headed to bed disaster struck. She said: “I heard a scream and then Dualtach shouted my name. He woke up when Donnacha cried and saw flames so he jumped from the top bunk and pulled Donnacha out of the bottom bunk bed which was on fire.
“I screamed to get the rest of the house up and out and Ryan started pouring water on it. We luckily had a fire extinguisher in the kitchen so I ran to get that.
“By the 30 seconds I was away the room was filled with smoke and flames which were getting bigger but thankfully we were able to get the fire out.”
The couple rushed to Donnacha and found he had a number of burns. They took him immediately to hospital.
The incident happened at the family home in Ramelton, Co Donegal, last week and Donnacha recovered in Letterkenny Hospital.
Nicola and Ryan, who are originally from Letterkenny, commended staff who tended to their young son.
Nicola revealed: “He has burns to his head, hand, toes and leg but thankfully nothing too bad and he is now home and lapping up the attention.
“His mattress, duvet and sheet were all destroyed.”
The family returned home and found the cause of the fire in the boys’ room – a phone charger. Nicola said that her late mother Bridget, who died in 2016, and her sister Theresa, who passed away this year, must have had them in their prayers.
She added: “We checked and seen the cause of the fire was a charger, a genuine charger, not a cheap one.
“It was plugged into the wall, not into the tablet. It must have overheated and his mattress caught fire.
“Mammy and Theresa must have been looking down on us when you see the damage to his pyjamas, duvet and mattress.
“He is lucky to be here and thank God Dualtach woke and had the sense to save his wee brother or it could be a far worse outcome.”
Dad Ryan added that Dualtach, a third year student at Mulroy College in Milford, was a real hero.
He added: “We wouldn’t want anything like this to happen to any other family. It was so close to being a real disaster. Dualtach was just amazing.”
He has burns to his head, hand, toes and leg NICOLA MCCAULEY ON DONNACHA’S INJURIES