Calm 9-year-old saves family and neighbors
Flames shoot out from the windows of the third-floor apartment in Jinshan District.
A 9-year-old boy was hailed a hero after fire broke out in his home in Jinshan District while the family were asleep.
Ma Wenbo is said to have taken "textbook actions" after discovering the fire, actions that saved his family and his neighbors, fire authorities said on Thursday.
Ma, a third grader, said he was woken by the smell of burning at around 10pm on December 18. When he opened his bedroom door he saw the living room ablaze and immediately woke up his father, who then woke up his grandpa.
As they escaped, his father made the mistake of going back into the third-floor apartment to get his mobile phone to call firefighters. He soon found himself trapped.
Meanwhile, Ma was knocking on his neighbors’ doors before stopping a car in the street and asking the driver to call firefighters.
They arrived in minutes and saved Ma's father and a woman who was trapped on the fourth floor. All 18 residents in the building were able to evacuate the building with no one injured and the fire was extinguished in 20 minutes.
Authorities said the fire was probably caused by an electrical fault.
Ma Wenbo, the hero in the fire, and Miss Zhu, his class teacher.
Ma's father said he didn't expect that his son would one day save him.
"He was so much calmer in face of fire than I was," he said. "He's big boy now."
Ma's teachers said their school has public safety education classes for all students and require all to master emergency escape skills.
Safety education is stressed in Shanghai schools with all students required to watch a public safety education TV show at the beginning of each semester.
The aftermath of the fire .
