Shelby Township

Girl honored by fire chief for sniffing out blaze, saving family

By Brad D. Bates
C & G Staff Writer

» click to enlarge « Photo by Brad D. Bates Katarina Wright woke her grandfather at 1:30 a.m. and alerted him to the house fire when she was awoken by the smell of smoke. Photo by Brad D. Bates Katarina Wright woke her grandfather at 1:30 a.m. and alerted him to the house fire when she was awoken by the smell of smoke.

SHELBY TOWNSHIP — At last week’s Shelby Township Board of Trustees meeting, acting Fire Chief Jim Swinkowski credited Katarina Wright’s “quick thinking” and “heroic deeds” for saving her and her grandparents from a fire June 17.

“Back in June, her grandparents’ house caught on fire and Katarina, who is 7 years old, woke up out of a sound sleep and noticed something wasn’t right,” Swinkowski said.

“Obviously for any 7-year-old to be scared like that, to wake up in a dark house, she actually got up, went and got her grandfather, went and woke them up, and they all made it out alive and safely.”

But Katarina’s description of what it took to save her family was a little simpler.

“I really thought it was some firecrackers or something outside,” Katarina said of waking up to the smell of the house on fire. “I smelled it and woke up.”

While it was the smell of smoke that alerted the 7-year-old that something was amiss, Swinkowski said those heroic attributes were particularly of note, given her young age.

“Any time a firefighter enters the academy, the first thing we’re taught to do is find children, because when children are scared in this situation, they hide under the covers, hide under the bed, they hide in the closet, because they know, ‘If I close my eyes and wait, the bad things will go away,’” Swinkowski said.

“Well, Katarina didn’t do that. She did very quick thinking and her very quick actions saved the lives of her grandparents and herself.”

Her grandfather, John Horne, who said he and his wife Nancy are grateful for their granddaughter’s cool head, buttressed Swinkowski’s summation of Katarina’s actions.

“It was unbelievable,” John Horne said. “At first I thought maybe she had just heard some fireworks or something, because it was 1:30 in the morning.

“But as soon as she kept grabbing me, pulling my arm, and I sat up and the house was full of smoke, I just grabbed her and we ran out the door. Then I went back in and got Granny, and by then the house was just blazing and filled with black smoke. If it wasn’t for her, we’d all be gone.”

For those actions, Katarina was awarded with the Fire Chief’s Award for Heroic Actions and honored at the Oct. 16 meeting.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Brad D. Bates at bbates@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1029.