Boy, 10, Called Hero After Orlando Apartment Fire
Published: April 11, 2007
Eight families forced out by a fire in their apartment complex likely have a 10-year-old boy to thank for their lives. The flames broke out Thursday morning at the Reserve at Rosemont Apartments on Cinderlane Parkway in Orlando.
“There was a little flame. I thought it was a flashlight,” Bryam Nahuatt told Eyewitness News.
But as he ate breakfast, looking out from his balcony at the Reserve at Rosemont Apartments, Bryam soon realized the apartment building next to his was on fire. He did what he could to alert his neighbors.
“I just knocked on doors and screamed so they’d come out, but they didn’t listen. So I screamed again and knocked and they came out. They broke the window with their hand and came out,” he said.
The fire was likely caused by a lit cigarette or match in a first floor apartment. Firefighters were able to keep the flames from spreading to two other apartments, though there was some smoke damage on the building, forcing eight families out.
No one was hurt, thanks in large part to Bryam. Firefighters were delighted to learn a little boy appears to have been the lifesaver.
“If he did see the fire and he was one of the first, I applaud him for knocking on doors and notifying everyone else. That’s a great thing to do,” said said Greg Hoggatt, Orlando Fire Department.
Bryam said he acted out of concern for his friends and neighbors.
“They were like family. I was with them and I played a lot with them, so I knocked to them and to the other neighbor, too,” he said.
Management at the Reserve at Rosemont Apartments has made other apartments available in the complex for all eight families affected by the fire.
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