6-Year-Old Receives Award for Notifying Families About Fire in Apartment

A six-year-old boy from New Hampshire received an award from the state fire marshal’s office for his life-saving actions during an apartment fire.

Denali Duval woke up one Sunday morning in September, smelled smoke, and immediately rushed to wake his parents, WCVB reported.

“I said, ‘Get out of there!’ That’s what I said,” Denali said.

The family says they did not hear a smoke alarm as the fire spread up the stairs and the side of the building.

“The stairs in the back were already in flames, and the people had to come out on the roof because they couldn’t come down the stairs,” said Denali’s mother, Kendra Duval.

Firefighters arrived at the scene and were able to rescue several people. One man died.

The award Denali received from the state fire marshal’s office recognizes the lives saved that day.

“We believe that if it wasn’t for Denali’s quick action in recognizing there was a fire and waking up his parents, that there could have been more tragedy that September morning,” State Fire Marshal Paul Parisi said.

Kendra Duval said a total of 19 lives were saved that day, including children.

Denali is not the only kid to rescue people from a house fire. A four-year-old rescued his family from a house fire in Virginia in November 2019, and in that same month, a teenager saved his neighbors from an Indiana house fire.