MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A 13-year-old boy is being credited with saving several of his younger brothers and sisters from a South Memphis house fire early New Year’s Day.
Firefighters told WREG everyone was asleep inside the home on the 700 block of Tate Avenue when it went up in flames around 2:15 a.m. Monday.
Family members said 13-year-old Tevohn Isom helped some of the youngest occupants out of the house.
“They was scared to get out, so he got them out and alerted everybody to get out the house,” said Tevohn’s grandmother, Betty Isom.
All four adults and six children had to flee the home with little warning and little more than the clothes they were sleeping in.
“I couldn’t get nothing. I wanted to go back and get the keys so we could sit in the car. Couldn’t even go back in the house and get the keys. They kept begging me don’t go back in there,” said Betty Isom.
Isom is known to her neighbors for the block parties she organizes as well as her anti-violence campaigns.
Many of her friends and neighbors slowed down in front of the home Monday afternoon to get a look at the damage.
“She like the mother of the whole community ’cause she take care of the homeless, the poor and everything,” said Joshua Isom, Betty’s son.
A preliminary investigation shows the cause of the fire was likely an electrical malfunction in the bedroom.
The Memphis Fire Department says there was $10,000 damage to the home and $5,000 to contents.
No one was injured, and the family has been connected with the Red Cross.