Teen's Quick Thinking Saves 2 Children Home Alone From Apartment Fire
GREELEY, Colo. (CBS4) - A teenager and his mother saved two children from inside a burning home in Greeley on Monday.
Michael Weinbender, 17, says he was headed to his truck to run errands around 11 a.m. when he smelled smoke coming from inside his apartment complex on the 2800 block of 28th Street. Weinbender turned and saw smoke coming from the second floor of his neighbor's home.
Weinbender told his mother, Janine, to call 911 as he realized two children were inside the home. Weinbender went in after them. He says an 11-year-old boy had managed to get his sister, a toddler, down from the unit's second floor were smoke filled the rooms. Janine described it as a thick wall of black smoke. Her son says the children did not seem to know what to do next.
"They were just kind of confused, like they didn't know what was going on," Weinbender said.
His mother helped him get the two children out of the home where they waited with the children for crews to arrive. Weinbender's timing in spotting the fire may have been lifesaving.
"That just scared me, because what if I didn't come out when I did?" Weinbender said. "What if I left 10 minutes earlier or 10 minutes later and didn't see that?"
According to a Greeley Fire Department news release, three engine companies, a ladder truck, one heavy rescue and command officers responded to the scene and extinguished the fire in the room where it started before it could spread further. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Weinbender says Greeley police also arrived and questioned the 11-year-old, who seemed to be physically okay. Their mother arrived later and could be seen crying, according to Weinbender. There was no word on Tuesday from investigators on whether anyone will be charged in the incident.
According to the Colorado Department of Human Services, there are no state laws that set a minimum age for when a child can legally be left home alone, but age 12 is regarded as a general guideline.
Weinbender says he doesn't think he deserves extra attention for what he did, and when asked, said he doesn't want to be called a hero.
"I don't think I'm special for going in and getting them," Weinbender said, "I think it's just something any other person walking by would have done."
Lauren DiSpirito is CBS4's Northern Newsroom reporter. Follow her on Twitter @CBS4Lauren. Share your story ideas with her here.