A pair of brothers in Massachusetts are being praised for rescuing a husband, his wife, and their historic home from a fire.
The incident occurred in Andover during a recent storm, WCVB reported Monday.
Seventeen-year-old Graham Dalton was driving home at approximately 3:00 p.m. alongside his 14-year-old brother named Ian after they shoveled snow for neighbors.
They saw what looked like flames coming out of a third-story window of a house on Summer Street.
“I pulled alongside the house and I was like, ‘Hey, go knock on their door. Make sure everything is OK,'” Graham recalled.
“I was like, ‘Hey, is there supposed to be a fire in the attic.’ He was like, ‘No,’ and I was like, ‘Alright, well, there is,'” Ian said of the incident.
Graham dialed 911 as Ian helped the couple, whose names are Pat and Fran O’Neil, escape while the second floor filled with smoke.
A fire can grow into something life-threatening in about two minutes and a home can be engulfed in approximately five minutes, according to ready.gov.
“We had no idea,” Pat O’Neil said about what happened, adding, “We were sitting down in the dining area playing Scrabble, and we had a fire in the fireplace.”
Firefighters eventually contained the fire inside the 130-year-old house. It apparently ignited in a third-floor window fan.
“You’ve just got to go. It’s not something you learn. It’s not something you’re taught, not something you train for, certainly, and you just gotta go,” Graham noted.
In addition to saving the couple and their home, the brothers waited with them to help with cleaning up the property.
“That they went in and they acted appropriately and as a team, I’m very proud of that,” Julie Dalton, their mother, said. “They were cool under pressure.”
Meanwhile, Andover Fire Chief Michael Mansfield reiterated that seconds count when it comes to a fire, noting the brothers’ swift actions and desire to help others made a huge difference in the outcome.
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