15-year-old teen saves mother, grandmother from fire

MILWAUKEE -- When a fire broke out at her home, 15-year-old Kayla Roberts jumped into action and helped save her family from the flames. Roberts says it was the Milwaukee Fire Department that helped her to develop the skills needed to respond heroically as she watched the place she grew up burn down.

"It was really scary but I realized that I just had to get everyone out of the house," Roberts said.

It was 8:00 a.m. on November 2nd when Kayla woke up to the sound of the smoke detector going off.

Roberts jumped out of bed and sprang into action.

"I opened my grandmother's door and I thought she was cooking, but I noticed she wasn't. She was still lying in bed asleep, so something turned me toward the basement and I looked and I saw a blaze," Roberts said.

After seeing the fire, Roberts woke up her mother and grandmother to get them out of the house and then called 911. Within minutes of fire crews arriving on the scene, the entire back of the house and the stairwell was engulfed in flames.

"Had Kayla not heard the smoke detector and gotten herself and her mother off of that second floor and gotten her grandmother off the first floor we would've likely been dealing with fatalities at this fire," Deputy Chief Aaron Lipski with the Milwaukee Fire Department said.

Roberts credits the Milwaukee Fire Department for teaching her what to do in a fire emergency.

The Survive Alive Program puts second and fifth-grade Milwaukee students in a mock fire situation, for a potentially life-saving lesson.

"They have to learn how to roll off of their bed and stay low below the smoke. They have to learn how to feel the door before opening it because if there is fire on the other side you don`t want to open the door," Lipski said.

Although Roberts and her family lost almost everything, they are so grateful to still have each other.

"They thank me every day now, every day," Roberts said.