WESTLAKE, Ohio (WOIO) - Two young brothers were honored Friday by the Westlake Fire Department after alerting neighbors during an apartment fire last week, helping everyone escape.Carter, 9, and Caleb, 6, were celebrated at the fire station by the same crew that responded to the blaze at Barrington Place on Detroit Road.“We wanted to let them know how much we appreciated them and what a big deal what they did really was. It was a big deal,” Westlake Fire Chief Matt Moran said.The fire started on the third flo...
WESTLAKE, Ohio (WOIO) - Two young brothers were honored Friday by the Westlake Fire Department after alerting neighbors during an apartment fire last week, helping everyone escape.
Carter, 9, and Caleb, 6, were celebrated at the fire station by the same crew that responded to the blaze at Barrington Place on Detroit Road.
“We wanted to let them know how much we appreciated them and what a big deal what they did really was. It was a big deal,” Westlake Fire Chief Matt Moran said.
The fire started on the third floor of the Barrington Place apartment complex last Wednesday, drawing a response from five fire departments.
Twenty-four units were damaged.
The cause remains under investigation.
The brothers were inside one of those units when they noticed something was wrong.
“So we were just playing video games... then we heard something fall,” Carter said.
After spotting smoke and flames on a balcony, the boys alerted their mother and ran outside.
“We looked and we saw smoke and flames and we ran to mommy. We went to our mom and said fire and then we ran outside and started screaming fire,” Carter said.
Both brothers are recent graduates of Safety Town, a program Westlake has run for 56 consecutive years that educates children about traffic and school safety issues.
Chief Moran said the boys’ training made a direct difference in the outcome.
“They were the ones that actually discovered the fire and came and notified her and everyone ended up getting out of the building because of them because they followed what they learned in Safety Town,” Moran said.
Chief Moran said the boys saved dozens of lives that day.
“They are young boys, 6 and 9 years old, to keep their cool and know what to do like that — they really saved the day,” Moran said.
At Friday’s celebration, the brothers tried on firefighter gear, climbed on the trucks that responded to the fire and enjoyed a well deserved pizza party hosted by the department.
“It feels good. I didn’t know just a fire would lead to this,” Carter said.