A Texas toddler is being credited for saving his family of 7 from a fire that ended up destroying their home.
“He’s our little mini hero” mother, Kayla Dahl, says of her two-year-old son Brandon who alerted the family to a house fire and saved their lives.
On the morning of Jan. 15th, Nathan and Kayla Dahl were both in bed recovering from Covid-19. Both had lost their sense of taste and smell from the virus and could not smell the smoke filling the house. It wasn’t until Brandon woke his parents yelling “Momma, hot! Momma, hot!”, that they realized the house was on fire. The few extra moments Brandon’s warning gave them were just enough for the family to escape the house unscathed.
“We had seconds,” Nathan Dahl said. “It’s nothing short of a miracle.”
Nathan and Kayla live in Alvord, Texas with their five children, the youngest of which is Brandon. The fire that ultimately destroyed the family home began at approximately 4:30 am on Jan. 15th. Firefighters on the scene suspect the living room’s gas heater was the cause of the fire.
Nathan Dahl’s five years of experience as a volunteer firefighter left him more prepared than most for such an intense situation. The Dahl family had a fire safety plan already in place, all seven were out of the house in under a minute. Aside from a few signed hairs on Brandon’s head, no one in the family suffered any burns or smoke inhalation.
Firefighters from nine different departments and one EMS department arrived on the scene. They weren’t able to save much of the Dahl home but they were able to keep the fire from spreading to the neighboring homes.
“I’m really, really thankful for those other departments that came to not only our aid but our neighbors’ aids,” Nathan Dahl said.
The U.S. Fire Administration recommends families build a fire safety plan including how to safely exit rooms and a predetermined meeting place for children to go in the event of a fire.
