Who rescues people from a burning house? These guys!

UPDATE, OCTOBER 15, 2015:  Jacob Gray and Mason Chamberlain were honored this week as Youth Heroes by the American Red Cross of Southeast Tennessee!

Original story from March 1, 2015:

I’m as bad as anybody else.  Sometimes I get into a lazy, stereotypical mindset. I start believing that most 17-year-old boys stay out late, wake up really late, and have only one thing on their mind.  I love it when I’m proven wrong.

Let me tell you what happened Thursday night.  Central High junior Jacob Gray and Ooltewah High junior Mason Chamberlain were riding around with a couple of friends. They drove by a house on Sims Harris Road, near Harrison.  They saw flames coming from the front of the house. There was no fire truck in sight.

Let me stop right here.  How many people, of any age, would have kept on driving and taken little, if any action?  Hopefully, most of us would at least call 9-1-1. But back to the story, now told from a different point of view.

16-year-old Brianna Dobbs, a Central High student was upstairs listening to music.  She thought she heard glass breaking, and then her cat’s ears started to perk up. “I began yelling for my stepdad,” Brianna said.  “I didn’t know what was going on.”  Brianna’s stepfather, Kenny Waldon soon discovered the fire in the front of the house, and tried in vain to put it out.

The next voices Brianna heard belonged to Jacob and Mason.  “Two guys were yelling, your house is on fire!  Everybody get out! I said, we’ve got to get my mom!”  Her mother, Kim Waldon couldn’t immediately be found.  Although Kim’s other daughter was at a friend’s house, she momentarily panicked and looked for her before remembering she was away.

Jacob and Mason noticed the front door was in flames.  They tried unsuccessfully to enter the garage.  They ran to the rear of the house, and were able to get in the back door.  Smoke was beginning to fill the house.  “I could see about four feet in front of me,” Jacob said.  While the boys were running up the stairs to find whoever may be inside, Kenny was frantically trying to move gas cans and propane tanks away from the house.  Then there were the family’s vehicles.  As seconds ticked by, Kenny knew everything flammable had to be moved as far away as possible.

By this time, the boys had rounded up Kim and Brianna, making sure they got downstairs, and getting them out through the smoke-filled living room.  “There was no time to call 9-1-1,” Brianna recalled. “We were just trying to get out alive, and we didn’t think about our phones, or any other possessions.”  The lights started flickering.  Then, “POW!” When they got outside, all they had was the clothes on their back.  The family pets, a cat and dog, didn’t make it out alive.  Mason helped Kenny move the family vehicles across the road.

In the meantime, the boys’ friends Cameron Baltimore and Jana Cannon, who stayed behind in the car, called 9-1-1.  Highway 58 Volunteer Firefighters soon arrived, but were only able to contain the fire. The house sustained some $200,000 in damages, and is a total loss.  The cause has been ruled accidental.

Cameron and Jana made sure that Kim and Brianna had clothes and shoes for the night, and Mason gave Kenny his jacket.  The American Red Cross arranged for the family to stay in a motel, and provided them with some clothing, money and food.

I asked Mason, “Why did you pull over and go into that house?  You could have been killed.”  He said, “As soon as we saw it, me and Jacob talked.  We said, we can’t just drive by here, and then hear on the news that some people died in a house fire.  We had to at least try.  I wish we could have done more.” Jacob added, “This was just in our heart. I would hope people would do the same thing for my family.”

I’ve known Mason’s parents, Julie and Scott (a KZ-106 radio friend) for years.  Proud mom Julie posted this on Facebook:  “I’m thankful to God he was at the right place when needed and no one was hurt!” Family friend Bruce Garner, a spokesperson for the Chattanooga Fire Department, wrote, “ I wouldn’t recommend making a habit out of that without proper equipment and training. That’s a very dangerous environment. But, Mason and (Jacob) didn’t just stand there, they took action.”

When I spoke to the Waldon family, Brianna said, “We didn’t really get to thank them properly, we were just shocked.  If they hadn’t stopped to help us, there could have been much more damage.  They risked their lives for us, and we can’t thank them enough.”

Having witnessed the recent fire that took the lives of Randall and Candy Lockhart in north Chattanooga, leaving three children without their parents, it’s important to point out that Mason Chamberlain, Jacob Gray and their friends took action to prevent another tragedy.  Did they go too far?  Should they have exercised more caution?  I’ll leave that for others to debate.  I’ll just join the Waldon family in expressing my appreciation.  I’m thankful they didn’t just keep on driving.  Far too many of us, young and old, do that these days.

If you would like to help the Waldon family, contact the American Red Cross of Southeast Tennessee: 4115 S. Access Road, Chattanooga, TN 37406.  Phone 423-265-3455