TURNERS FALLS — Eight-year-old Daniel Widmer isn’t normally up at 5 a.m. But on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 27, he woke up to go to the bathroom — a twist of fate that perhaps saved the lives of his family members.
The porch of the Widmer house, located at 5 Church St. in Millers Falls, caught on fire that morning, and because Daniel alerted his family, they were all able to get out of the house safely, including the family dog, Happy.
Because of his role, Daniel was presented with a “Young Hero Award” from the Department of Fire Services and Office of the State Fire Marshal during an all school assembly Friday at 8:45 a.m. at Sheffield Elementary School.
Turners Falls Fire Chief John Zellmann and Capt. Kyle Cogswell, as well as Tim Howe of the Department of Fire Services and Office of the State Fire Marshal, presented Daniel with the award.
“Daniel did a great job preventing a serious event from getting worse,” Cogswell said during the assembly.
Richard Widmer, Daniel’s father, explained what happened on Sept. 27, when his son returned to his room and noticed something strange out the window.
“He watched for a while, this red glow,” Richard Widmer said.
Daniel went to his parents’ room, thinking that his father had started a fire in the wood stove, as they had done the night before. At first, Richard Widmer thought Daniel had woken them to ask questions about the wood stove.
“Then he said ‘Well, how come it’s so big?’” Richard Widmer said. “Then I heard ‘Snap, snap.’”
Richard Widmer followed the sound to the porch, noticed the fire and the family quickly got out of the house. They met at the neighbor’s house, having previously talked through where they would meet in case of a fire, and Richard Widmer called 911.
“I know what to do,” Daniel said, explaining he had seen how people respond to house fires on television. “You’ve got to get outside quickly and safely.”
“We’re so blessed, because it could have been so much worse,” Richard Widmer said. “Even though it was a small house fire, it shook us up.”
Richard Widmer was able to diminish the fire with a fire extinguisher and hose, and the Turners Falls Fire Department arrived to help. Minimal damage was left and was concentrated solely on the porch.
“If (Daniel) had waited another two minutes, it would have gone right into his bedroom,” Cogswell said.
Cogswell and Howe also credited the Student Awareness Fire Education (SAFE) Program, a state initiative targeting grades K-12, for teaching Daniel and his classmates what to do in case of a fire. Howe, a coordinator of the SAFE program, took the opportunity to remind students to make sure their household smoke detectors work.
“If you do that, you can all be heroes just like Daniel,” Howe said to the children.