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Brothers handle themselves well during house fire

Brothers were recognized for their fire smarts during a fire in Cablecar in Kitimat last week.
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Jonathan Orfao (right)

Jonathan Orfao, 9, was moving his brother’s bike on their driveway when he heard the bang.

On August 14, the Orfao’s home burned as did another, attached house, on Chinook Street in Cablecar.

“I heard a bang, like a drum. I looked behind me and there was a fire,” Jon described while he and his family toured the fire hall, in recognition of what came next.

He said he ran inside the house, shouted ‘fire’ and alerted the rest of his family, including his seven-year-old brother Alex.

The family rushed to their neighbours where they called 911.

But the kids were already, in a sense prepared for a fire, after visits to their classrooms by firefighter Ben Coultish, as well as the Emergency Awareness Program coordinators.

Deputy Fire Chief Pete Bizarro says that it’s a great feeling for the department, who sometimes isn’t sure that the information they present is being learned or will be put into action.

But clearly it does work.

“The biggest thing for me is that the kid didn’t go back into the house,” he said, saying sometimes temptation is there to go back for things.

As icing on the cake, the fire department salvaged a large toy fire truck from the home, and presented it back to the kids, cleaned-up, during a fire hall tour.

“It put some smiles on their faces for sure.”

Mayor Joanne Monaghan also presented the kids with certificates of recognition for their actions.