By Jennifer Fernandez
News & Record
GREENSBORO, N.C. — A 13-year-old went into a house on fire Thursday afternoon to help guide his grandparents to safety.
Quinlan Stewart, a seventh-grader at Guilford Middle School, said he was walking home from his bus stop when he noticed smoke at his family’s house at 2208 Vanstory St. He said he pulled his shirt up over his nose and mouth and led his grandparents out a back door.
His 10-year-old sister Shayla had already escaped unharmed, he said. His 12-year-old sister Raven wasn’t home at the time.
Jackie Castro, a 14-year-old neighbor, said she pulled the family’s dog out but couldn’t breathe because of the smoke so she wasn’t able to reach the grandparents. Jackie called Quinlan’s mom, Debbie McKeel, at Mad Platter, where she works. McKeel was preparing to place pottery in a kiln when she got the call. McKeel said she prayed that everyone was all right.
“Then they told me that Quinlan went back in and they didn’t see him,” McKeel said. “On the way home is when it started setting back in. I started crying thinking about my son.”
She would soon learn that everyone escaped the fire unharmed.
When Quinlan entered the burning house, he found his grandparents in different rooms.His grandmother, Faye McKeel, said her husband was downstairs trying to put out the fire. They think it was an electrical fire because they heard a popping noise, she said.McKeel, 78, said when her grandson came in the back door, she told him she was worried about “Poppa” who was still downstairs dealing with the fire. She said Quinlan went downstairs to find him.
“He came in and made sure everybody was out,” she said.Quinlan said he was a little scared to go into the house."It was real smoky. You couldn’t see and breathe that much,” he said.
Debbie McKeel said she’s very proud of her son.Thursday wasn’t the first time Quinlan disregarded his safety to take care of a family member, she said. McKeel said the family was swimming at a beach last year and a current started taking her and Shayla out. They found themselves in a place where she couldn’t touch bottom and she called for Quinlan, who swam out and pulled them back.
Greensboro firefighters said no one was injured in the fire, which they responded to shortly after 4 p.m. The fire may have started in the basement, a firefighter said. It caused extensive smoke damage.
Debbie McKeel said Day Spring Church, where she is a children’s director, offered the family housing. But her grandparents’ insurance company has arranged to put the family up in a hotel.