One 7-year-old boy is being celebrated as a hero after risking his life to save his baby sister from a raging fire that destroyed their home in New Tazewell, Tennessee.
His foster parents, Chris and Nicole Davidson, who are both former firefighters, opened up about the harrowing day in an interview with CNN.
After putting their three children to bed at 8:30 pm on December 8, Nicole noted she felt God wake her up several hours later as smoke and flames covered their home.
“At about 11:30 [p.m.] someone woke me up and I know it was God,” Nicole Davidson said to WVLT 8.
He (Chris) grabbed the fire extinguisher trying to buy me time to get the kids,” she recounted. “And I grabbed the boys because they were closest to the fire.”
While the boys, 2-year-old Elijah, and 7-year-old Eli, were brought to safety, the couple’s 22-month daughter, Erin, was trapped in her crib as the fire grew out of control.
“The scariest moment of my life is when I thought we couldn’t get her,” Nicole told WVLT 8.
Chris Davidson told CNN that the smoke and fire in the house was so thick that he could not reach his baby daughter.
“We went outside to get to her from the window, but there was nothing for me to stand on to reach up there.” he added.
While his father managed to break the window into Erin’s room, Eli told WVLT 8 that he was the only one who was able to get in.
Despite being afraid, the 7-year-old saw that he needed to be a hero as it was the only way to save his sister’s life.
“Dad busted the window and then I said, ‘I can’t do it,’ like two times, and then I said, ‘I got her dad’”, Eli explained. “And when we went down there I said, ‘I was scared but I didn’t want my sister to die.’”
“We couldn’t be more proud of Eli. He did something a grown man wouldn’t do,” Chris Davidson told CNN.
Following his heroic feat, Eli said, “It’s OK to be scared but you are brave inside and you can do it (heroic things) when you want to.”
According to CNN, the Davidsons, have fostered 34 children, including Eli. They also have two adopted children, Erin and Elijah. The family is currently with relatives after the fire destroyed her home.
A GoFundme campaign has since been organized for the Davidson’s after the house fire, The Christian Post reports. At the time of this writing, close to $350,000 has been raised by over 6,000 donors.
Photo courtesy: ©Unsplash/Andy Watkins
Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer. Visit his blog Blessed Are The Forgiven.
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