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1st December 2012, 08:38 PM
http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2012/11/30/matthew-hansen-boy-saves-family-house-fire/?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmaing7%7Cdl7%7Csec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D240361
A family in Beacon, N.Y., is lucky to be alive after a fire consuming their kitchen (pictured below after the blaze) threatened to consume their home in flames as they slept. The hero who saved them? Their 5-year-old boy.
Matthew Hansen (pictured above) woke around 4 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving, his eyes burning from the "clouds" in his room, the boy told the Poughkeepsie Journal (http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20121130/NEWS14/311300037/beacon-fire-safety-schools?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CPoughkeepsi eJournal.com). He couldn't tell in the dark, but they were clouds of black smoke creeping up the staircase and slowly surrounding him and his collection of stuffed animals.
http://www.blogcdn.com/realestate.aol.com/blog/media/2012/11/matt-1354329554.png"I need my eyes checked, mommy, I can't see," he called to his parents, Christina and Greg Hansen, who were asleep in their bedroom nearby. They thought Matthew was just being a kid.
"Greg said to him, 'You can't see because it's dark out and you're sleeping,' " Christina Hansen recalled.
But Matthew just knew that wasn't it. He remembered what the fire sergeants taught him at school.
"I felt something, and at school, they told us what to do if your butt is ever on fire," Matthew said. "You stop, drop and roll. You're never supposed to hide, and you're always supposed to call for help. So I called my mom and dad."
Matthew's continued cries finally roused his mom, and when she went to his room to check on him, she saw the smoke. She snatched Matthew out of bed in just his T-shirt and underwear, and whisked him downstairs in her arms and out into the cold night.
"I'm just thinking, 'Get him outside,' but ... I didn't want him to freeze," his mother said.
She ran back inside to get Matthew warm clothes while her husband began throwing water on kitchen cabinets engulfed in flame. She looked up and saw a "pitch black" kitchen covered from floor to ceiling in soot and light bulbs that had melted in their sockets.
Firefighters arrived minutes later. By then, the kitchen was "gutted," Greg Hansen said, and the dining room and bathroom were damaged. It was determined that the electric stove short-circuited and turned on, setting on fire a cupcake pan sitting on top of it.
A family in Beacon, N.Y., is lucky to be alive after a fire consuming their kitchen (pictured below after the blaze) threatened to consume their home in flames as they slept. The hero who saved them? Their 5-year-old boy.
Matthew Hansen (pictured above) woke around 4 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving, his eyes burning from the "clouds" in his room, the boy told the Poughkeepsie Journal (http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20121130/NEWS14/311300037/beacon-fire-safety-schools?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CPoughkeepsi eJournal.com). He couldn't tell in the dark, but they were clouds of black smoke creeping up the staircase and slowly surrounding him and his collection of stuffed animals.
http://www.blogcdn.com/realestate.aol.com/blog/media/2012/11/matt-1354329554.png"I need my eyes checked, mommy, I can't see," he called to his parents, Christina and Greg Hansen, who were asleep in their bedroom nearby. They thought Matthew was just being a kid.
"Greg said to him, 'You can't see because it's dark out and you're sleeping,' " Christina Hansen recalled.
But Matthew just knew that wasn't it. He remembered what the fire sergeants taught him at school.
"I felt something, and at school, they told us what to do if your butt is ever on fire," Matthew said. "You stop, drop and roll. You're never supposed to hide, and you're always supposed to call for help. So I called my mom and dad."
Matthew's continued cries finally roused his mom, and when she went to his room to check on him, she saw the smoke. She snatched Matthew out of bed in just his T-shirt and underwear, and whisked him downstairs in her arms and out into the cold night.
"I'm just thinking, 'Get him outside,' but ... I didn't want him to freeze," his mother said.
She ran back inside to get Matthew warm clothes while her husband began throwing water on kitchen cabinets engulfed in flame. She looked up and saw a "pitch black" kitchen covered from floor to ceiling in soot and light bulbs that had melted in their sockets.
Firefighters arrived minutes later. By then, the kitchen was "gutted," Greg Hansen said, and the dining room and bathroom were damaged. It was determined that the electric stove short-circuited and turned on, setting on fire a cupcake pan sitting on top of it.