Gwinnett County firefighters are calling a 13-year-old middle school student a hero for putting a school lesson to work and getting her two younger brothers out of the family’s burning home.
The fire broke out just before 7 a.m. Thursday at a home on Hall Garden Road near Snellville. The student and her brothers, ages 10 and 7 had been left alone briefly while their mother took their father to work nearby. When firefighters arrived, they were met by the mother who was frantically trying to get inside where she told firefighters she was afraid her children were trapped, Gwinnett fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge said.
But as fire crews went to work battling “intense flames” in the first floor kitchen and dining area, they discovered that the children were already safe outside.
“The fact that there were no victims inside was a tremendous relief to the firefighters,” Rutledge said. “Fire crews then focused their attention on stopping the flames from engulfing the home.”
He said the successful outcome of the incident was due, in part, to the “heroic actions” of Ania Polk, a student at Shiloh Middle School.
“Ania and two younger brothers, ages 7 and 10, were asleep upstairs when the fire erupted in the kitchen,” Rutledge said. “Ania awoke to the sound of the smoke alarm and went downstairs to investigate.”
After discovering the kitchen ablaze, “she quickly went back upstairs to wake her brothers and get everyone out of the house,” Rutledge said.
“Ania learned what to do from her teacher, Ms. Pamela Scott, during health class at school a few weeks earlier. According to Ania’s parents, the teen completed her assignment of creating a home escape plan and checking the smoke alarms.”
The cause of the fire has not been determined, but Rutledge said the blaze appears to have accidentally started in the kitchen.
“This incident is a true success story on so many levels,” he said. “Though the family sustained a loss of contents due to the flames and smoke, they are all safe and sound. The fire department applauds the teacher for sharing life-saving information with the students that truly makes a difference.”
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