- A 14-year-old schoolgirl is being hailed a hero in an English town after saving people trapped in a burning apartment.
- Inspired by her favorite Disney+ show 9-1-1, Lily Swanson raised the alarm when she noticed a strong burning smell while walking her dog.
- Lily immediately responded by running back home, wake her dad and called the emergency services.
Fourteen-year-old Lily Swanson had been walking the family’s dog, Isobel, near their home in Leyland, England when she noticed a strong burning smell coming from an apartment.
The teen girl looked around and saw black smoke coming out of a flat window above a clothes shop.
“There were no flames at that point, but I could see people inside. I knew they needed help fast and I had to get home and call 999,” the quick-thinking Lily said.
Lily ran home to wake her dad, Mike Swanson and called the emergency services. Mike grabbed his ladders and rushed to rescue the people trapped in the first-floor flat.
Lily said: “As soon as I called the fire brigade, we ran back outside and we could see people hanging out the window.
“It had only been a minute or two since I first saw the smoke but as we were running over to help them, one of the windows blew off and fell into the street,” she added.
When they saw the flames, Lily told her dad that they should “try and get everyone out of the other window above the barber’s next door.”
The father and daughter had to open the ladders and leaned them against the building so that people can climb out.
Lily said the fire brigade showed up very quickly and took over. She was impressed with how fast they got there.
“We did everything we could do and thankfully everyone got out safely, which is the best that could have happened.”
Leyland fire station manager Jonny Nottingham, who was the incident commander on the night of the fire, has praised Lily for her quick-thinking and calm response.
He said: “We’d like to thank Lily for calling us so quickly after spotting the fire in the apartment.
“We have seen in the past that people can have lots of different reactions to seeing a fire but Lily showed maturity and calmness beyond her years to quickly and effectively notify us.”
Her dad Mike couldn’t be prouder.
“It was a proud dad moment for me, as it could have been a lot worse if it wasn’t for Lily’s quick response.
“She’s been obsessed with this TV program on Disney+ called ‘9-1-1’. It’s about emergency services in America who deal with things like this. Then this happened practically on our doorstep and she handled it brilliantly. I’m very proud.”