'It was really scary': 15-year-old reflects on waking up to a fire Tuesday morning
Jun. 9—Lizzy Grayhawk woke up early Tuesday morning because she felt a strong heat radiating from her wall. A tapestry she'd hung upon her wall was aflame, along with the LED lights that surrounded it.
"I woke up because it was getting real hot on the side of me and my whole tapestry was on fire and the LED lights. And then the stuff on my top bunk were on fire. It was really scary," the 15-year-old said at a press conference later Tuesday afternoon. "I went to the bathroom to see if I could try and fix it but then it was like no."
Lizzy then alerted her parents Chelsie and Louie Grayhawk about the fire in their home. The Duluth Fire Department was dispatched at 12:49 a.m. to the home on the 1100 block of East 10th St., according to a news release. The four adults and four children in the family were able to escape the house safely, though Louie received burns from attempting to put out the fire.
The family had a plan in place in case of a fire and everyone was able to escape through the front door and gather across the street.
"She did the right thing to come to us and get us all out of the house," Chelsie said. "Within minutes, a huge fireball flew down the stairs and blew out the glass and slammed the doors and that was the way we came out. So within minutes, we would've... It wouldn't have ended so good. Probably more of us would have ended up in the hospital."
Three of the family's cats are currently unaccounted for, but fire officials believe they were able to escape through open doors as they were not found while searching the house.
For her efforts to alert the family and get everyone out, Duluth Fire Chief Shawn Krizaj said Lizzy would be awarded the Citizen's Lifesaver Award at the department's pinning ceremony in August.
"To my knowledge, we have not given it [the Citizen's Lifesaver Award] out since 2016, which was given to another teenager who noticed an elderly neighbor having a medical issue and called 911," Krizaj said. "We are honored to recognize Lizzy for her heroic efforts."
Lizzy said she mostly remembers feeling scared.
"I was really scared. I didn't know what was going on," Lizzy said.
"You might have been scared, but you were really a hero last night," Krizaj said. "You really, really made a difference."
The Duluth Fire Marshal has determined the fire to be accidental and the cause was electrical. The incident is no longer under investigation.
Structure damage is estimated to be $75,000 and damage to the contents of the house is estimated to be $50,000.
"We've got a long road ahead of us," Chelsie said. "Everything was lost in the fire and it doesn't look like we'll be able to save much, so we're starting over from scratch. We'll have to see what that looks like."
Chelsie's sister Savannah Prairie has started a GoFundMe to raise funds for the family, which notes that the family had recently found out their renters insurance had lapsed.
Chelsie also thanked her neighbors and family members for their support and for the immediate action from the Duluth Fire Department and Duluth Police Department. Also recognized in the incident was Duluth Police Sergeant Jozef Miketin for reaching out to the American Red Cross to get the family support right away.
"It was very important for us to help get them in touch with whatever types of resources they needed immediately," Miketin said. "They were standing on the sidewalk with no shoes on and it just broke my heart. I wanted to treat them how I want my family to be treated in a similar circumstances."
