By Traci Moyer
The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON, Ind. — Napaveon Caywood, 12, awoke around 3 a.m. on Christmas Eve to a screeching smoke detector.
Opening his eyes, Napaveon, the oldest of four children who attends Tenth Street Elementary, was disoriented and confused, but he could not miss the flames leaping up from a kitchen stove.
“They were everywhere,” he said of the flames. “And they were hot -- like lava.”
Barbara Caywood, 31, said she had gotten up about 15 minutes prior to the fire and turned on an electric stove to heat the small, one-story home in the 2300 block of East Fifth Street. The single mother said the baseboard electric heat is not sufficient to heat the home.
“All my kids have been sick and have the flu,” she said. “I woke up to make sure they were all covered up and when I touched their skin it was cold.”
Napaveon, who has epilepsy, woke his mother who tried to put the fire out with water, but in the next few furious minutes, the boy would make several key decisions that helped save his family’s life.
At first, Napaveon helped his mother throw water on the flames as the two grabbed pans and a pitcher filling it with water from the kitchen sink. The fire burned hotter and thick, black smoke was filling the home.
“I thought it was getting worse and worse and I just had to get the kids out of the house so they wouldn’t breathe in the smoke,” he said.
Running into the bedroom, Napaveon scooped up each sibling and a visiting niece, ranging in age from 7 to 2 years, and one-by-one he carried them out of the home to the family’s car outside.
“I was just hurrying to get them out and putting them in the car and in their seats,” said the boy quietly.
Napaveon then returned to the kitchen and told his mother they needed to leave.
“And then we started to see a really big hole in the side of the house,” he said. “I thought the house was going to blow up.”
Sobbing as she recounted the story Wednesday afternoon, Barbara Caywood said she heeded her son’s pleas and ran to grab her phone and car keys before running out of the home. The Fire Rescue House of Madison County is assisting the family.
“I grabbed my cellphone, keys, I didn’t grab nothing else,” she said. “Just my kids, my keys and my phone. Then I called 911.”
Brad Corbin, Anderson Fire Department acting battalion chief, said no one was injured by the fire and an exhaust fan over the stove was being examined as a source of the fire.
He said although the family has been displaced because the power was turned off, there was minimal damage to the house. With the exception of water and smoke damage to the contents of the home, the loss was estimated at less than $10,000.
Corbin said using cooking appliances to heat a home is dangerous and places everyone at risk of a fire.
“It’s a time bomb ticking and waiting to go off,” he said. “And never attempt to put a fire out on your own. That’s the worse thing you can do, call 911 immediately. That fire spreads so rapidly you should not be afraid to call 911.”
Napaveon said he is glad his family is safe, but he is worried because he said the family lost all their food in the fire.
“I am thankful for us being alive because if I didn’t wake up we could have died,” he said.
Barbara Caywood said she is an emotional wreck after the early morning events and although the family will not be celebrating Christmas this year in her home, she is blessed.
“I was just like -- how did this happen -- and at the same time thanking God for getting us out safe and sound,” Caywood said. “I am just worried because we lost the food items, my stove and dishes because it melted everything.”
She said she had only been able to afford two presents apiece for each of her children and the loss of presents is not important.
“Children have clothes, they just smell like smoke,” she said. “Everything in my house pretty much smells like smoke.”
After the interview with The Herald Bulletin, Anderson firefighter Skip Ockomon, a director with the Fire Rescue House of Madison County, took the family to a local retail store spending $100 on each member in the family to buy necessities and toys for the children.
Caywood said she learned a lesson this Christmas Eve.
“I was trying to get my kids warm, but don’t ever turn the oven on,” she said.
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(c)2014 The Herald Bulletin (Anderson, Ind.)
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