Four seventh graders honored by fire department officials for their quick action, saving local family's house

Four local seventh graders were honored by the Tupper Lake Volunteer Fire Department Friday afternoon for their community mindedness and civic responsibility when they alerted a local family that their garage was on fire.

Good friends Brady Skiff, Owen Scofield, Liam Kavanagh and John Tower were riding their bikes in the Junction on June 8 when they spotted a little smoke coming from the corner of a garage at 25 Lafayette Street, the home of Fred and Lona Exware.

They stopped and banged on the door of the Exware family's house next to it and told Mrs. Exware her single-stall garage was apparently on fire. She screamed in distress. Brady then immediately called 911.

The boys' quick actions might have prevented fire from spreading to neighbors' homes too, as the buildings in that neighborhood are quite close together.

“The operator told us to hang in there” and authorities would be alerted, Brady said Friday. He estimated the fire department arrived at the scene in little more than two minutes.

They were all headed to John Tower's house when they spotted the smoke. The Towers family lives two doors down from the Exwares'.

The boys admitted it made them proud that day to help someone and to produce a good result which could have just as easily turned into tragedy.

The volunteer firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the fire.

The lads stood by as the firefighters made short work of the blaze.

“They were all calm, cool and collected and acted like what they had done was no big deal,” Chief Royce Cole said of their bravery.

“After the fire I called them all over and shook their hands, telling them they did a great job and it was an impressive thing they did,” Chief Cole said that afternoon when the four and some of their parents joined him and fellow firemen Joe Arsenault and Assistant Chief Nick Rolley.

The department members instructed the chief to buy four $30 gift certificates to JRECK Subs here, where the boys like to eat, and Chief Cole presented them to them that afternoon.

The chief joked it was enough for more than two full dinner meals at the popular eatery, so they could each bring a date.

The boys said the Mac and Cheese bites were their favorite thing on the menu.

“On behalf of the fire department, we say 'thank you',” Chief Cole told the four, presenting them with the four gift cards. “Enjoy your meals, have fun with them because we very much appreciate what you did. Good job, guys!”

Several of the parents that afternoon also said how proud they were of the boys.

Also very proud of them and very happy for what they did that day was Fred Exware, who we found in his yard Sunday afternoon.

“I thanked them that day and went over and shook all their hands!”

“I told them if it wasn't for them we could have lost everything!”

The burned remains of the garage have all been cleaned up and trucked away. Fred's brother, Mark, helped him clean up the debris left in the fire's wake. All that remains of it is a large heap of burned metal machines- several snowblowers, lawn mowers, an air compressor his grandfather built by hand and some tools that had been in the structure. A workshop attached to the back of the garage, while somewhat scorched, was saved by the firefighters.

The fire apparently started in a corner of the garage which was about 12 feet from the house where an electric line ran into it from the house. The smoke the boys spotted either originated from a burning outlet or the framing around it.

The house was originally the home of Fred's grandparents, Vic and Gladys Blair.

“If it wouldn't have been for those boys, we could have lost the rest of the building and the house,” a very thankful Fred said that day.

The fire was so close to the house at one point, he showed a light that had melted off the fascia on his house's back porch. The garage fire also melted hoses hanging off a fuel tank behind the house. Fortunately too the fuel tank was empty.

“You couldn't even put your hand on the tank at one point, things were so hot there.”

The heat also broke a window in the back of couple's house.

A half a dozen trees in the back yard were badly scorched and are brown today.

One car- a Nisson Versa- parked near the garage was destroyed by the fire. While Fred used a garden hose to put out the fire, Lona moved one of their trucks that was parked immediately in front of the garage so it wasn't damaged and a second truck was parked in the back yard out of harm's way.

Fred is no stranger to tragedy. A number of years ago he lost an eye and was severely injured when a tractor trailer tire blew up in his face.

“The firemen got here very quickly and it's a good thing they did,” Fred said. “Otherwise we would have been in bigger trouble! I lost the garage and a lot of tools, but we could have lost everything.”

Pointing to the pile of melted machines, he said it represents just a fraction of the tools and implements he lost.

“Those boys were life-savers,” was his comment as we left his yard.

Captions

Fire department leaders Nick Rolley, Fire Chief Royce Cole and Joe Arsenault pose behind four local teenage heroes- from left Owen Scofield, John Tower, Liam Kavanagh and Brady Skiff, with their bikes. (McClelland photo)

A pile of partially melted machinery and tools is all that remains of the Exwares' garage. (Dan McClelland photos)

The first melted a porch light and busted a window on the back of the Exware house.

A workshop on the back of the garage was saved by firefighters on June 8.