In March, then 15-year-old Elijah Heinrich saved his family’s home from a fire while he was at home sick. Early this morning, he woke his family and got them to safety when what is presumed to be an electrical fire began in their basement.
Heinrich: “I woke up not to the fire alarms actually but to the sound of some of the windows downstairs like popping and cracking. I opened up the door and there was smoke everywhere and so I ran into my parents room and turned on the light and then ran into my little sister’s room and turned on her light and picked her up out of bed and we just kind of ran out of the house.”
Heinrich is now 16-years-old. He says when he turned on the light to get his 6-year-old baby sister, he wondered why it wasn’t working and then realized that the smoke was too thick to see it.
Heinrich: “When I realized how bad the smoke was, I mean she was just out of it she had no idea what was going on, I grabbed a clean shirt off the laundry pile and told her to hold it on her face and so she held that over her face while we ran downstairs and out the door.”
In March, Kenai Fire Marshall Tom Carver praised the the teen’s actions as flawless, saying he remembers Heinrich in the classes that firefighters have taught at local schools. Heinrich says he’s glad he had been in those classes.
Heinrich: “Yeah, it was the things that they taught me: get everyone out of the house, stay down, and don’t breath in the smoke. And I think it was also partially just common sense and adrenaline kicking in. I don’t remember a lot from what happened last night, it just kind of happened.”
Heinrich says there is severe smoke damage throughout the house and the basement is completely ruined. An investigation will be held but it’s unclear now if the family will ever be able to move back in.
We asked if there’s a way the community can help the family…
Heinrich: “Right now I think the best way you guys can help is to keep us in your prayers, our church has been helping out with us, we’re probably going to get in contact with the Red Cross but right now I think all our bases are covered. We’re pretty lucky that we had food in our garage that wasn’t touched so we’re good there, a lot of our legal documents were saved.”