WSMV Channel 4 Teen helps save 2 elderly sisters from fire

A pair of elderly sisters is recovering in the hospital after a house fire near Bordeaux Monday night, and a brave teenager is being credited with helping alert fire crews.

The sisters' house went up in flames on Drakes Hill Drive.  Neighbors said one of the women is 101 years old while the other is 95.

Firefighters said they believe the blaze started when a stove was left on and unattended.

A teenager boy, Kevin Butler, 19, whose grandmother's lives nearby, first saw the smoke and called 911. The boy also broke through a window in an attempt to save the elderly sisters, but the smoke was too heavy.

Butler wasn't supposed to be in the area at 7:15 p.m. Monday when the fire started across the street from his grandmother's home.

"I was going to my grandma's house to pick up some football cleats to work out, and I ended up coming on the way up my driveway and saw smoke from the back of the house," said Butler.

The two elderly women who were trapped inside were no strangers to Butler.

"I've been in this house before.  They've given me cake and stuff.  They're like family.  I was trying to do my best," said Butler.

With little time to react, his only thought was to save the ladies.

"My first entry was through the front door, and the door handle was burning like an oven.  A big cloud of black smoke hit me.  I was trying to go in and out. I was on the phone with the police at the same time," said Butler.

Without regard to his own safety, he made a split-second decision.

"I heard their voices, so I decided to knock the window out with my own hands to see if I could pull them out, but there was so much smoke. I couldn't see who was in there, where they were," said Butler.

When firefighters arrived, they found one of the victims in bed and the other in a hallway.

Firefighters had to perform CPR on one of the women. Both were rushed to Vanderbilt Medical Center in critical condition.

Neighbors said the women lived at the home for more than 40 years and both are former Metro teachers.

Butler knows if he didn't go to his grandmother's house to pickup his cleats, the consequences might have been different.  He said he's learned a life lesson he'll always carry with him.

"Always help someone out, never stray away from anything," said Butler.

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