Roseann Titus was getting ready Thursday morning when she saw flames coming from a bathroom at the front of her house in the Western Alaska village of White Mountain. Her granddaughter and great-grandson were still in bed.
Titus said she tried unsuccessfully to put out the fire and then rushed to wake them up. But the flames spread into the hallway, blocking the way out of the house.
That’s when her great-grandson, 8-year-old Colton Koonooka-Kowchee, sprang into action.
“We didn't know how to contain it, so he kind of jumped out the window and ran for help,” Colton’s mother, Venessa Marie Koonooka, said.
She said her son plunged 10 feet from the window into a snowdrift below. Then he ran through deep snow to get help – which came in the form of Shane Bergamaschi, a volunteer firefighter.
Bergamaschi helped pull Titus through a window and rushed her to the local clinic to await a medevac.
“They helped us right away when we got in there with my grandma’s burns and smoke inhalation,” Marie Koonooka said. “I only had a popped knee and a few frostbites on my toes. I was okay.”
Titus was flown to Anchorage, where she was treated for burns on her shoulder and arm. The home was a loss, including personal belongings and two moose legs from a recent hunt.
Colton’s grandmother, Nora Brown, who was not in the home at the time, credited her grandson with keeping the situation from getting much worse.
“If it wasn't for Colton jumping out on his own, we would have probably lost my mother, and the houses nearby probably would have caught fire,” Brown said.
Titus has worked for the Bering Strait School District since 1988. Bering Air is ferrying donations to the family, and a GoFundMe has been set up.