Teens alert neighbors about attic fire, saving 130-year-old home

ANDOVER, Mass. (WHDH) - Two teens made a brave save in the middle of a blizzard.

“It’s not something you can get ready for. You just got to go,” Graham Dalton said.

He and his brother Ian Dalton were driving to their mom’s house to help shovel during Saturday’s storm, when suddenly they noticed flames coming out of the top of their neighbor’s home.

“The fire went through the window in their front. It just completely blew it open,” Ian Dalton said. “The flames were coming out; it did not look like a natural fire.”

Graham Dalton called 911 while Ian Dalton ran to alert the homeowners.

“We’re very, very fortunate and lucky and we are very grateful to them,” Pat O’Neil said.

O’Neil and her husband were inside but were downstairs playing Scrabble.

“We had no warning before that at all,” she said.

They had no idea their attic was on fire.

“He came to the door, and I was like, ‘Hey, your attic is on fire.’ And he was like, ‘Is it?’ And I was like, ‘You might want to check that,’” Ian Dalton said.

The brothers and O’Neil’s husband then ran upstairs to douse the fire with water, working to contain it until the fire department got there.

The brothers’ quick actions saved their neighbors’ lives as well as the 130-year-old home.

“Another 15 minutes, and the firemen told us the house would have been totally burned,” O’Neil said.

O’Neil calls them heroes, but the Dalton brothers see it a bit differently.

“It all happened really quick, and I am pretty sure the adrenaline was just pumping through the veins,” Graham Dalton said. “And like I said, it’s not something you’re ready for, you just got to do it.”

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