Adam Cameron Lee Granger carried sister, led brother out of burning house

BY KEVIN BONESKE

REPORTER/PHOTOGRAPHER

A seven-year-old boy is being called a hero after carrying his six-month-old sister and leading his four-year-old brother out of a house fire that occurred Tuesday afternoon two blocks north of the Rhinelander Fire Department.

Adam Cameron Lee Granger was honored during a special program Friday at the fire station and presented a Commendation for Heroism plaque by assistant fire chief Tom Waydick.

Waydick said the fire department responded to the structure fire at 335 N. Brown St., where it was reported that three children were trapped in the upstairs apartment.

“Upon arrival, firefighters were told the children were out of the structure and no one was inside,” he said. “Later we learned the reason the children were out of the structure was due to the bravery and quick actions of seven-year-old Adam Cameron Lee Granger.”

Waydick said Adam went into the apartment and discovered the fire in the kitchen with flames reaching the ceiling, and then he rushed down the hallway to a back bedroom where his sixth-month sister, Kierra, was in her crib and pulled her from the crib, heading back down the hallway towards the fire, and the exit.

On Adam’s way out, Waydick said the boy had his four-year-old brother, Eathan, follow him to safety, thereby saving two lives that day.

As for others who were nearby at the time of the blaze, Waydick said Adam’s father was in the yard preparing a campfire for the children and, once alerted to the fire, raced into the apartment with his brother not knowing all the children had made it out.

Waydick said the father attempted to extinguish the fire while the brother searched inside for the baby and then, after being told the baby couldn’t be found, the father began to search the apartment until hearing someone outside say the children were all out.

He said the father ended up crawling down the hallway in the thick smoke to the stairs where he tumbled to safety and suffered burns to his arms.

Waydick said the exact cause of the fire is undetermined, but based on interviews and evidence at the scene, it has been classified as accidental and is believed to have been caused by the four-year-old attempting to make something on the stove.

The house, which has been uninhabitable since the blaze, sustained heat, fire and smoke damage upstairs.