A group of quick-thinking high school basketball players helped save a family from a house fire in Texas.
A group of quick-thinking high school basketball players helped save a family from a house fire in Texas.
Drew Timme, his brother Walker Timme and their friends Bryce Johnson and Will Newberry were heading home after winning a playoff game for their school — J.J. Pearce High in the Dallas suburb of Richardson — on Friday when they realized something was wrong.
“On the way to my house, the road was covered in smoke,” Drew told InsideEdition.com.
They also smelled fire, so the boys jumped into action, calling 911 and checking on the family inside.
“I went up to the door and saw there’s this kid there just kind of walking back and forth and he didn’t really know what was going on,” Drew said.
He said the children inside the home had autism and were unable to process what was going on, so he decided to try to alert the other occupants that there was a fire.
“Apparently I woke the mom up when I was yelling to see if anyone was okay, knocking,” Drew said.
Drew, Walker and Bryce helped get the family and their pets out of the home as the flames spread, while Will directed a 911 dispatcher to the fire.
“I got the dogs and kids across the street, to the neighbor’s house,” Walker said.
It was then that the teens realized one family member was missing.
“The wife said the dad was in the backyard and he was actually trying to put out the fire by himself." Will said. "He just had a garden hose and he was trying to put it out, but it was overwhelming."
He found the father, and brought him in front to his family. There, the teens waited with the family until the fire was put out by responding firefighters.
Bryce, the basketball coach’s son, called his father to let him know what happened on the way home.
“I just told him what happened and he told me he’s proud of us and the next day he told us as a whole team what we did and that he’s proud of us,” he said.
Since then, the group has been hailed as heroes, but the teens say they only did what they thought was necessary.
“It was instinct,” Bryce said.
“We were just doing the right thing,” Will added. “You know, that’s just what we should do for our neighbors and take care of our community like that.”
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