By Mara H. Gottfried
The Pioneer Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — “Hey, there’s smoke out there! White smoke,” Quientin Phillips, 6, ran to tell his mother and other adults on Tuesday morning.
He was playing with a family friend’s Chihuahua behind an apartment building on St. Paul’s Greater East Side when he spotted it drifting into the air.
“I knew that white smoke means fire,” said Pria Phillips, the boy’s mother. They ran to safety and she called 911.
“He basically saved our lives,” Phillips said. “He’s a little hero to me.”
The St. Paul fire department agreed and Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard went to see Quientin soon after firefighters had extinguished the blaze. He presented him with a junior fire marshal sticker and a toy fire helmet.
“Thanks for being so brave and so smart,” Zaccard told the boy, who learned about fire safety in school. He placed the hat on Quientin’s head to claps from the boy’s mother and her friends.
Firefighters were called to the fire on East Seventh Street, between Flandrau and Kennard streets, at 10:54 a.m. and they put out the fire, which was contained to one apartment. One person was treated at the scene for minor smoke inhalation, according to the fire department.
The cause of the fire could not be determined. “Due to the extensive damage in the bedroom where the fire occurred we cannot rule out several potential causes,” Zaccard said. The fire department estimated the damage at $50,000 to the building and $100,000 to the contents.
Veteran loses nearly everything
The fire occurred in the first-floor unit of a Navy veteran, who was not home when it occurred. She sobbed outside the building after the fire; her son said she had lost mostly everything.
Dawn Kern, whose company owns the building, said she tries to rent to veterans and four of the six units are occupied by veterans who had been homeless. She said it’s her passion because her father was an Army veteran who served in World War II, plus she has nephews who have served and one who still is.
Kern said she worked with inspectors and an electrician throughout the day to be sure the residents of the five other units would not be displaced. The American Red Cross is helping the resident whose apartment burned and a restoration company is looking at what in the unit might be salvageable, Kern said.
Recent death brought family to town
On Tuesday, Pria Phillips and her son, who lived in St. Paul until about a year ago, were visiting a friend who lives in the building. The Phillipses now reside in Boston, but they came to town because Pria Phillips’ brother unexpectedly died last week.
Another friend visiting the building, Preston Brown, also sprang into action when he found out from Quientin about the smoke and heard there was a cat inside the apartment. He kicked down the door.
The smoke “came out like a whoosh,” Brown said. He fetched wet rags to put over his face to try to go inside, but he said the fire was too hot and he couldn’t get inside.
The fire department didn’t find a cat in the apartment or the rubble, and it’s possible the pet ran out when the door was kicked in, Zaccard said.
A Marine’s praise
When Joseph Shockency heard shouting about the fire, he went to his neighbor’s door with a fire extinguisher to see if he could help. But Shockency, a Marine who said he served in the Vietnam War, had to back-track when he put his hand on the door and felt how hot it was.
Shockency had nothing but praise for Quientin on Tuesday.
“He’s a young man I hope to see put on a uniform one day,” Shockency said. “I think the Marines need to give him some kudos because he saved one.”
But for now, the incoming first grader isn’t talking about becoming a Marine or even a firefighter. The boy, who is shy around strangers, whispers to his mother that he wants to be a ninja when a reporter asks what he aspires to when he grows up.
Copyright 2016 the Pioneer Press