Spotted this on STLToday.com…. Good Job Brandi!
Glad to hear this didn’t turn out much worse for a local racing family.
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Girl is honored for saving home from fire
By Susan Weich
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/19/2005
ST. CHARLES COUNTY Thirteen-year-old Brandi Kiser is a big help with everything, say her parents, so maybe they shouldn't have been surprised when she single-handedly saved their ranch home near O'Fallon earlier this month.
Brandi used a garden hose to douse 3-foot flames that had already ignited insulation under the porch and around the front door of their home on six acres in the 2300 block of Mexico Road.
Officials with the Wentzville Fire Protection District honored Brandi on Monday with a resolution citing her heroic actions. Without her, the fire would have reached the attic and threatened the entire home, fire Capt. Jeff Preis said.
Brandi and her siblings - Valerie, 8, Melissa, 5, and Wesley, 2 - were at home with their grandmother, Peggy Fitzgerald, who was baby-sitting while their parents, Jennifer and Jerry Kiser, were at the Montgomery County Speedway.
Shortly after midnight on Sept. 4, the family's black Labrador retriever, Max, started barking, and Fitzgerald noticed smoke coming under the front door.
She called Jennifer Kiser on the phone, and Kiser told her she would call 911 while Fitzgerald got the children out of the home.
Jerry Kiser called back, and Brandi answered the phone. He asked Brandi how big the flames were. She said that she didn't know but that the wood porch was on fire.
Landscaping lights, which had been pulled up and placed on the decking earlier while the grass was cut, had overheated.
Kiser, a former volunteer firefighter, told Brandi to unplug the lights. When she told him she had it done, he told her to go back outside, get the hose and start wetting down the front of the house.
"I told her don't get too close; stay back so you don't get hurt," Kiser said. "She said OK, dad. She was very calm about it and hung up the phone."
Brandi kept hosing down the flames for the next five minutes until the first firetruck arrived.
When firefighters surveyed the damage, they couldn't believe that she had stopped the fire with just a garden hose. The porch was nearly gone, the soffit of the roof was sagging downward, the front door was destroyed and most of the siding was melted.
Kiser said he, too, was shocked when he saw the damage, estimated at $8,500. He said he would never have asked Brandi to do what she did had he known how serious it was.
Jennifer and Jerry Kiser say they couldn't be more proud of their daughter, an eighth-grader at Fort Zumwalt North Middle School.
"She really put herself out there for her family," said Jennifer Kiser.
sweich@post-dispatch.com 636-255-7210
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Glad to hear this didn’t turn out much worse for a local racing family.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Girl is honored for saving home from fire
By Susan Weich
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/19/2005
ST. CHARLES COUNTY Thirteen-year-old Brandi Kiser is a big help with everything, say her parents, so maybe they shouldn't have been surprised when she single-handedly saved their ranch home near O'Fallon earlier this month.
Brandi used a garden hose to douse 3-foot flames that had already ignited insulation under the porch and around the front door of their home on six acres in the 2300 block of Mexico Road.
Officials with the Wentzville Fire Protection District honored Brandi on Monday with a resolution citing her heroic actions. Without her, the fire would have reached the attic and threatened the entire home, fire Capt. Jeff Preis said.
Brandi and her siblings - Valerie, 8, Melissa, 5, and Wesley, 2 - were at home with their grandmother, Peggy Fitzgerald, who was baby-sitting while their parents, Jennifer and Jerry Kiser, were at the Montgomery County Speedway.
Shortly after midnight on Sept. 4, the family's black Labrador retriever, Max, started barking, and Fitzgerald noticed smoke coming under the front door.
She called Jennifer Kiser on the phone, and Kiser told her she would call 911 while Fitzgerald got the children out of the home.
Jerry Kiser called back, and Brandi answered the phone. He asked Brandi how big the flames were. She said that she didn't know but that the wood porch was on fire.
Landscaping lights, which had been pulled up and placed on the decking earlier while the grass was cut, had overheated.
Kiser, a former volunteer firefighter, told Brandi to unplug the lights. When she told him she had it done, he told her to go back outside, get the hose and start wetting down the front of the house.
"I told her don't get too close; stay back so you don't get hurt," Kiser said. "She said OK, dad. She was very calm about it and hung up the phone."
Brandi kept hosing down the flames for the next five minutes until the first firetruck arrived.
When firefighters surveyed the damage, they couldn't believe that she had stopped the fire with just a garden hose. The porch was nearly gone, the soffit of the roof was sagging downward, the front door was destroyed and most of the siding was melted.
Kiser said he, too, was shocked when he saw the damage, estimated at $8,500. He said he would never have asked Brandi to do what she did had he known how serious it was.
Jennifer and Jerry Kiser say they couldn't be more proud of their daughter, an eighth-grader at Fort Zumwalt North Middle School.
"She really put herself out there for her family," said Jennifer Kiser.
sweich@post-dispatch.com 636-255-7210
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