Quick-thinking Round Lake teen alerts neighbors about weekend house fire

The quick action of a Round Lake teenager allowed a woman and her 2-year-old child to escape a fire that was burning on the exterior of their home.

Sadie Contreras, 17, was watching a basketball game on television with her father around 11 p.m. Saturday when she noticed something strange through the window.

"Out of the corner of my eye, there was this orange glow," Sadie Contreras said Monday.

She looked across the street to see flames building near the doorway of a home on the 300 block of S. Litchfield Drive. She told her father to call 911 before bolting to the house.

"She started yelling about a fire, and bam, she ran 100 miles an hour out the door," said her father, Luis Contreras. "She never thought twice about it. She was going to get the people out of there."

The Grant High School junior didn't even bother to put on shoes, despite being just a month removed from foot surgery for a broken toe.

"It was pretty sore, but it didn't really matter then," Sadie Contreras said.

As flames climbed the exterior of the home to the second story, the teen yelled and pounded on its doors and windows to alert the people inside. Though she didn't know the family personally, she figured someone had to be home at the late hour.

"I just kept screaming 'Fire! Get up, get out of the house!' It seemed like it took forever," she said

Finally, the woman inside the house came out with a toddler and dog. No one was injured.

Hearing Sadie Contreras yelling, another neighbor came out with a fire extinguisher to help fight the blaze. Fox Lake firefighters soon arrived and put out the fire completely within an hour.

"She never hesitated, she just went and did," said her mother Andrea Contreras. "Most adults wouldn't be able to act so quickly. I'm humbled by her initiative."

The fire damage mostly was confined to the siding and windows of the home, according to the Fox Lake Fire Department. Officials said it was an electrical fire, but the cause is under investigation.

Contreras' parents said they weren't surprised by the quick thinking of their daughter.

"God gave me the best kid I could have dreamed of," her mother said. "We couldn't be more proud."

Sadie Contreras plays varsity basketball and golf at Grant. Despite her potential as an emergency responder, she said she'd like to be a dietitian after college.

"I just wanted nothing else but to make sure there was no one in that house," she said. "I'm thankful that I could help."