It was an average Saturday for Lesley Villeneuve and her family who were having a barbeque in their backyard.
“All of a sudden my grandson said, ‘Bubbe, come here.’ He said he saw flames,” Villeneuve said.
Ten-year-old Kingston Clairmont was playing in his tree house in north Lethbridge when he spotted a fire in a neighbour’s backyard.
“He yelled out, ‘someone call 9-1-1 right now’,” Villeneuve said.
The fire was quickly growing and Clairmont knew that they had to act fast.
“The flames were so high, and there was such black smoke,” Clairmont said.
Initially, his family thought the neighbours may be having a backyard fire but the boy said he knew something wasn’t right.
“It took me a minute to process everything, to think, ‘that’s definitely not a backyard fire, that’s too high’,” said the young boy. “There was too much black smoke.”
“He saved the whole backyard from engulfing in flames,” said his grandmother.
Although many kids are taught to call 9-1-1 in the case of an emergency, his grandmother attributes Clairmont’s calm demeanor and quick reaction time to the averted disaster.
“He didn’t flinch, it was just immediate and no panicking,” Villeneuve said.
“I told him, ‘you’re a little hero’,” she said. “The man whose fence was on fire even came over to thank my grandson.”
Villeneuve said the tree house was already a good investment, but she never knew how much it would actually pay off.