Five neighbourhood kids armed with water guns have been credited with saving a man from a deck fire in West Fargo, North Dakota on Tuesday.
According to the West Fargo Fire Department, crews responded to a call of a deck fire Tuesday afternoon.
While en route to the blaze, firefighters were notified that the resident of the apartment was housebound on home oxygen and was unable to get out of the building or able to attempt to extinguish the fire, the fire department explained in a statement.
Upon arrival, crews found the burned remnants of a planter box. Flames also torched a portion of the deck. However, the fire was already out.
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“It was later determined that five neighbourhood kids had seen the fire, alerted the occupant, and then used their water guns to control the blaze before the fire department arrived,” the department said in the statement. “Their quick thinking and lightning fast reaction, containing the fire while still small, saved the building from extensive fire damage and quite possibly, the life of the occupant in the apartment.”
Speaking with the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, Fire Chief Daniel Fuller told the newspaper that the dispatcher had alerted the responding crews that neighbours helped to snuff out the fire, but he wasn’t expecting the neighbours to be kids.
“They had some Super Soakers, so they had some pretty good range,” Fuller told the newspaper. “They had to refill a couple of times but they pretty much got the fire out. It was just smoldering when we got there.”
The department said the fire may have started as a result of a cigarette being put out in the planter box.
No injuries were reported.
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