Search icon

News

28th Jan 2022

2-year-old saves family from fire after parents lose sense of smell from Covid

Sarah McKenna Barry

The family’s fire alarm failed to go off, but their young child was able to alert his parents.

A two-year-old boy from Alvord, Texas, saved his family from a house fire after he woke up his parents, who were unable to smell the smoke.

Appearing on Good Morning America, Brandon’s parents Kayla and Nathan Dahl spoke about how their toddler was able to smell the fire and alert them after their fire alarm failed to go off.

After waking his parents, they were able to usher Brandon and their four other children safely out of their house.

Recalling the night, Kayla said: “He tapped me on my feet in bed and was coughing and saying, ‘Mama, hot, Mama hot.’ I turned around. I looked and all I saw was flames in the doorway.”

Nathan added that he was initially confused by the commotion before he realised the house was on fire.

He said: “She’s screaming, ‘Fire! Fire! Fire!’ My initial thought was ‘OK, I’m going to get up and I’m going to get to work.’ We had seconds. It was nothing short of a miracle.”

Both Kayla and Nathan had lost their sense of smell after testing positive for Covid-19. The family say that they think the fire was caused by a gas heater in the living room.

While the entire family made it out to safety, their house was destroyed.

“Everything is gone,” Kayla said. “We lost my car, everything inside the house. Brandon saved us. He was wrapped in in God’s arms to help protect him and to make sure that our entire family was able to get out.”

Their escape was also thanks to dad Nathan, who volunteered as a fire-fighter. He had thankfully prepared his children on how to escape their home quickly in case of a fire.