A group of New York teenagers returning home from junior prom are being hailed as heroes for helping get a father and his two daughters to safety upon noticing the family’s garage was on fire.
“Your house is on fire! Your house is on fire,” Aiden Kane, 17, is heard in cellphone video yelling to alert the occupants of the house in Marcy — a town of around 8,700 — on May 17.
Kane, his girlfriend, Morgan Randall, and their friends Donato Jellenich and Tyler Sojda were driving back from the junior prom at Whitesboro High School when they saw the garage engulfed in flames.
Kane said the orange glow looked like a bonfire, which they thought would not be unusual on prom night in Marcy, which is in Oneida County north of Utica. But upon getting closer, they realized what was happening.
The cellphone video shows Kane telling the dad and his two girls, “You guys got to get out!” and, once outside, telling one of the shaken children, “You’re OK,” and to stand behind a car.
Jared A. Pearl, chief of the Maynard Fire Department, one of several agencies that responded, said that Kane alerted the family, which allowed them to get to safety, and that he asked whether any pets were inside; Jellenich called 911; and Randall stayed with the family and helped with their children.
No one was hurt in the fire, Pearl said.
“The family was safely evacuated before flames could reach the main structure of the home,” Pearl said in a statement. “Thanks to Aiden’s leadership and the team’s quick response, a potential tragedy was averted.”
Sojda said their comforting the children touched close to home because he has a little brother.
Randall said, “We were there on the right time.”
Kane, a junior, said that his father has worked for police and EMS and that he has been on calls with his dad because emergencies have happened while they were together.
“Seeing him doing it kind of inspired me to help out the family,” he said.
