Gavin Lerik’s favourite superhero is Spider-Man, but the six-year-old boy from Sooke is the one being hailed a hero this week for quick-thinking that may have saved his home – and his family – from a late-night fire.
The blaze flared up in a dryer unit in the family’s bathroom just before 12:30 a.m. Thursday.
While all of his cousins, siblings and parents were either asleep or in bed, Gavin was still awake when he noticed an orange glow from underneath the bathroom door.
“I felt kind of worried because it looked like there was a fire in the bathroom,” Gavin said.
Falling back on fire awareness knowledge he was taught in school, the youngster spran knocked on, then kicked his parents’ door to alert them.
“A bang on the door came, ‘Bang bang bang!’ We couldn’t quite figure out what it was and it sounded funny, it didn’t sound like a normal knock,” said Gavin’s mother, Shannon Planes.
When they opened the door, their son brought them to the lit-up bathroom and they opened the door to discover a fire had broken out.
Planes and Gavin’s father, Craig Lerik, then turned off the home’s circuit breakers, hosed down the dryer and stamped out flaming debris, then got outside and called the fire department.
Aside from a burn on Planes’ foot, all six occupants of the home escaped from what could have been a much worse fire – all relatively unharmed thanks to Gavin’s quick thinking.
“He saved the day,” Planes said. “He knew enough to know that smoke is bad, and ‘I need an adult.’ He just did what he needed to do in the moment, and for that, we’re all very proud and grateful.”
Not only did he save the day, young Gavin likely saved his family’s lives, according to District of Sooke Fire Chief Steve Sorensen.
“This is really a good news story,” Sorensen said Thursday. “[Gavin] encouraged them to get out of their room and see what was going on…He’s quite the little hero.”
An investigation into the cause of the fire shows it could have been much worse if the six-year-old hadn’t been awake, he said. With no municipal water in the area and trees all around, the fire could’ve eventually impacted the entire neighbourhood.
“Judging by how the fire had already started to climb the walls and the shelving unit in the laundry room, it’s another one or two minutes and that room would’ve been fully involved,” said Sorensen. “This could’ve been a serious fire, maybe even a fatal fire – definitely one with injuries.”
He may be a few years away from entering the work force, but Gavin said he’d like to train to become a firefighter one day.
Sooke’s fire chief wouldn’t mind that, either.
“I think he’d make a great addition to the service,” Sorensen said.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined. An investigation is ongoing.
