Four-year-old alerts parents to fire
REDSTONE TWP. – Ryan Laughery hasn’t started kindergarten yet, but he already knows that in an emergency you should call 9-1-1. Ryan, 4, was playing in his sandbox at his father’s house Sunday when he noticed a fire at the neighbor’s house.
The two houses are separated by a large open field and a strip of trees that nearly hides the neighboring property.
“I saw the smoke and I went over and looked at the fire and I told my dad to go over there and help the man,” Ryan said.
“He came running in shouting, ‘There’s a fire, there’s a fire!’ He told us to call 9-1-1,” said Justi Laughery, Ryan’s stepmother. “We’ve always told him that if anyone is hurt or in trouble or if there’s a fire or an accident, to just call 9-1-1.”
That early childhood training obviously took hold. He’s also learned a bit from watching television with his stepfather, according to his mother, Richelle Sawyers.
“He and Jim watch ‘Cops’ every night. He says he wants to be a cop,” Sawyers said.
Justi Laughery said that looking out, she could see that the neighbor’s house was on fire, just as Ryan had said. She dialed 9-1-1 while her husband ran next door to help the neighbor, Harry Metz, who is elderly.
“He was sitting in his recliner, not thinking it was serious. My husband pulled him out, then went back in and got his little dog out for him, too,” Justi Laughery said.
Laughery said Metz told them he had been cooking a hamburger when a grease fire began on the stove.
Metz tried to put the fire out with a dishtowel and when the towel caught fire, he tossed it into the sink.
The towel then caught the kitchen curtains on fire, and it spread from there. Metz was uninjured, though his house was destroyed.
“He didn’t even know there was a fire. He thought he got it all out,” Brandon Laughery said.
“If Ryan hadn’t been outside, it would have probably been a different ending,” Justi Laughery said. “We all would have been inside.”
The Allison, Grindstone, Brownsville No. 1 (North Side) and South Brownsville fire departments responded to the scene of the fire shortly before 3 p.m. Sunday on Volek Road.
Justi Laughery said there was a birthday party at her house Sunday for her son Brenden for his first birthday, so her house was full of guests, all of whom were blocked in by the fire equipment.
“We had a lot of people there helping out,” Laughery said.
Laughery said her stepson lives with his mother and stepfather in New Salem through the week and spends weekends at his father’s Grindstone home.
Ryan was honored Wednesday by the Redstone Township supervisors with a certificate of appreciation, a gift certificate to Radio Shack and a Play-Doh monster truck.
“This is for you for being an outstanding citizen,” Redstone Township Supervisor Larry Williams said as he handed the framed certificate to Ryan.
Ryan, who had been bedazzled by the toy and confused by the credit card-like gift certificate, knew exactly what the certificate with the shiny gold seal meant.
“Does that mean I’m a hero?” Ryan asked.
Williams assured him that he definitely was a hero.