COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – A Columbia teenager says he saved his family’s life because he was up late at night playing video games.
The Columbia-Richland Fire Department responded to a two-alarm fire Garden Hill Drive in the Summit neighborhood Tuesday morning at around 12:45 a.m. Neighbors told WIS News 10 that crews did not clear the scene until 5 a.m.
Avante Weeks, a rising 8th grader at Kelly Mill Middle School, saw the whole thing unfold. He was playing video games with his friends when he heard popping noises, thinking his neighbors were enjoying an outside fire.
“I go downstairs, and I see that it’s the fire illuminating from my car, and I’m like that’s not right. Fire doesn’t really reach that far,” he said.
“So I go to my back door, and I look where they normally have a fire, and they’re not there,” he told WIS News 10. “I’m like, huh, that’s weird, and so I keep walking, I see the house completely, well not completely on fir, but I saw a little bit of it starting.”
Weeks quickly sprang into action and woke up everyone inside the house. His family was able to get out of the burning home safely.
The 13-year-old’s mother told WIS News 10 she’s extremely proud of her son and thankful for what he did to make sure his family got out safely.
”I just feel really proud of myself and how fast I thought. Because I was thinking so fast, that I didn’t even have a chance to put on a shirt, no shoes, didn’t grab my phone. I just thought fast,” said Weeks.
Two families are now in hotels after the fire destroyed their homes.
CRFD said when they arrived, one home was completely engulfed in fire, and flames were quickly spreading to the house next to it. A third home also suffered damages due to the high heat.
Thankfully, fire department officials said nobody was injured by the fire.
Caitlyn Brewer, who lives nearby, said she was awoken by what sounded like fireworks in her driveway.
”I thought that kids were out in the street lighting up their firecrackers and screaming. It was going on for about an hour and then I heard it in my driveway and I said lemme check my car. So I peeked out the window and I saw two different fire trucks, one pointed at that house and one pointed at this house. It was an angry fire and it was taller than the tallest trees on the neighborhood,” said Brewer.
The Weeks family is now looking for their missing English Bulldog, who escaped during the fire.
The cause of the fire is still unknown. The Richland County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the case.
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