Nanny runs barefoot through flames to save 5-year-old boy

A Shelby County nanny is being hailed a hero. 22-year-old Alyson Myatt is at University Hospital, recovering from severe burns after she saved a 5-year-old’s life.

Around 6:20 a.m. on March 23, Myatt was sleeping in a downstairs bedroom at a home on Golden Rod where she is a live-in nanny for 5-year-old Aiden Hawes, whose father was out of town.

“I just heard a big boom. I thought it was Aiden,” Myatt said.

After hearing the boom, Myatt immediately sprinted upstairs – barefoot. When she got to the hallway, she was met by flames on the carpet.

“I was calling him. He said, ‘Aly, I’m in here. I’m in my room underneath my covers.’ I was like okay and I ran there, grabbed him and ran out,” said Myatt.

Myatt said her focus was rescuing Aiden. At the time, she didn’t even think about getting burned.

“After I ran off the carpet, my feet were just … it was like I was walking on goo ’cause all the skin. My feet were just burned off,” Myatt described.

Myatt then ran out of the house with Aiden, drove to a neighbor’s house to call 911. Although Myatt suffered burns to her hands, legs and feet, she said Aiden was not injured.

“I’m just happy Aiden is okay,” said Myatt. “I care for that kid a lot.”

“The boy, probably, without her wouldn’t have been able to survive until we arrived,” said Chief Willard Tucker of the Shelbyville Fire Department.

Tucker believes Myatt ran through 400 degree flames to reach and rescue Aiden, something he believes a lot of people would not have done.

SOURCE: Nanny runs barefoot through flames to save 5-year-old boy

School bus crew saves woman from burning house [Video]

“I thank God that I was able to get the lady out of the house.” said Bobbie Wright, who spends most of her time helping people. She seats and watches over physically challenged kids on the school bus and when she and her co-worker passed by a home on fire, they had to help save a life.

“I told Bobbie, I said Bobbie she’s trying to get out, there’s someone trapped inside and then Bobbie said ‘Open the door, let me out’ and I opened the door and she RAN out.” said bus driver Stephanie Bayless.

Firefighters believe the fire probably started in the living room area where 65-year-old Jimmy Wayne McKnight was bedridden in a hospital bed.

His caregiver Louise Pinkston heard the smoke alarm and told firefighters what happened next. “She attempted to go to the living room area where Mr. McKnight was at and it’s my understanding at that point she could not get to him or get him out” said Horn Lake Fire Chief David Linville.

Pinkston’s attempts at putting out the fire also failed. The only thing she could do was escape.

When Firefighters arrived they found smoke pouring form over opening of the house, and flames shooting out the living room and kitchen windows.

Ms. Pinkston managed to get to the other end of the house and out a small bathroom window.

That’s when Wright and Bayless passed by, and jumped into action. “She was hollering and so she was trying to lift the window up but she couldn’t get it up so I lift the window up, pushed the window up and got her out the fire,” explained Wright.

Wright herself tried to put out the fire, first by breaking a front window with an landscape timber, then with a garden hose.

Ms. Pinkston suffered heavy smoke inhilation, singed hair and minor burns.

As to why she felt compelled to help, Wright says the answer is simple. “I would want someone to do that for me or do that for my family if something like that happened, so that’s what I did, I just react.” she smiled.

Read more and watch this story: School Bus Crew Saves Woman From Burning House

Photo: From Flickr user hotonpictures