Teen Hailed as Hero After Saving Entire Family from Burning to Death in House Fire
In the sleepy lake town of Muskego, Wisconsin, a fire started at a townhome on Dec. 10 at 12:30 a.m. on Cornell Circle.
While home fires can often have devastating results, a teenage hero stepped in and saved his family from what could have been a horrible disaster.
The hero, a 15-year-old boy named Darin Alsfelt, not only helped his family escape the flames, but also sprang into action to get help too, according to KDVR.
The night of the fire, the family had fallen asleep while watching a movie. They awoke with a start to flames and popping sounds within their living room.
The mother of the family, Lorri Kurer, tried to put out the fire but soon realized it was spreading out of control too quickly, according to WITI.
That was when Alsfelt sprang into action. He called 911 and ushered his 11-year-old sister out of the house. He then ran back in and got his mother out too.
Kurer is disabled and was recovering from stomach surgery at the time. She is on oxygen and can’t move around very quickly, which a fire would certainly require.
After making sure his family was safe, Alsfelt went to the house next store and woke up his aunt to help her out of her home just in case. She is blind, but the boy was determined to help.
While the family escaped with nothing more than the clothes on their backs, their lives were spared thanks to the quick thinking of Alsfelt that got them all out safely.
“The kid is a hero,” Dean Moyer, a family friend, told KDVR. “This could’ve gone real bad, real quick. He was moving very quick and this kid is very sharp. He did his due diligence for the night, but the thing is, now they have to deal with this. It’s pretty horrific.”
While the family made it out of the house alive, Kurer did suffer some second-degree burns on her forearms. She has since been released from the hospital and is recovering at a friend’s home.
Kurer told KDVR if they weren’t downstairs the night the fire started, they might not have survived the incident.
“(The fire) was right next to my oxygen tank and within a second, everything just — ‘boom,’” Kurer told KDVR. “If they were up in their beds last night, I might not have them today.”
When surveying the damage to her home, Kurer told KDVR that she was “scared, lost — where am I going?”
A total of ten of Kurer’s oxygen tanks exploded in the fire. The townhouse where Kurer lived is a complete loss, with the cause of the fire unknown at this time.
“It’s not easy being a handicapped mom in a tragedy like this, and you don’t know if you’ll ever be able to save your kids,” Kurer told KDVR.
We are thankful that this young hero had the courage and smarts to react quickly during the fire to save his family. The results could have been very different if he didn’t. A GoFundMe Page has been set up to help the family to help them during this difficult time.
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