6-year-old girl saves sleeping family from house fire

WINNSBORO, La. (KNOE/Gray News) - When a 6-year-old Louisiana girl woke to find her house on fire, she jumped into action and helped to get her entire family out safely.

Arianna Prince, 6, was given the Citizen Life Saving Award by the Winnsboro Fire Department after saving her family from a house fire last Saturday morning. She woke up to see a cabinet on fire and quickly alerted her mother, Misty Gorman, to get everyone to safety, KNOE reports.

Gorman was sound asleep at the time and wasn’t aware that a fire had started. She says if wasn’t for Arianna, her family would not have made it out.

“I didn’t even hear the smoke alarms. She did. So, she was very brave. She ran through the house, got me, and then, she ran and got her brothers out. Went and got a neighbor, and she got us out. So, we’re very proud of her,” Gorman said.

Arianna told KNOE what to do if a fire occurs at your home:

“You should stay calm, and you should crawl out of the fire. If you got on fire, you should roll, and then, you should call firefighters,” she said.

Interim Fire Chief Mikala Weems says she’s grateful for Arianna and that no lives were lost in the fire.

“This is a very tragic event, but I’m so grateful that we were able to save all of the human lives in this home. I’m so grateful to Arianna for waking up her family and getting them out of the house, so that we didn’t have more tragedy added to the losing of their home,” Weems said.

The cause of the fire is believed to be electrical.