Isiah Francis was 10 years old when he heard the screams.
It was an ordinary Tuesday in Oakland, Florida, when smoke began pouring out of the neighboring mobile home. Inside, an 8-month-old baby and a child just 1 year old were trapped as the fire spread, probably from the stove. Isiah and his friend Jeremiah Grimes, 11, didn’t call an adult first: they went in.
“I was afraid of getting burned”, Isiah later recalled, “and the smoke was so thick I could barely see”. Even so, the two children found the little ones in the smoke and brought them out alive. Two other children who also lived in the house, ages 2 and 5, were injured and ended up hospitalized in critical but stable condition.
At school, they had been taught to call 911 in case of a fire. That day, the training became pure instinct. Isiah now dreams of becoming a firefighter — at 10 years old, he already knows what it feels like to run toward the fire instead of away from it.
