Boy alerts great-grandma to fire

COVINGTON, Virginia - Many Christmas decorations have melted.

The house is ruined, but Nancy Richmond says she is lucky.

"I could see flames coming out so i didn't go out the front door, I said we're going out the back door. He grabbed my phone and called 911."

Nancy is talking about her great-grandson, 8-year-old Isaija Hodge.

He recalls calling 911.

"I said there's a fire at 706 North Augusta. That's all i said. I was going to die"

In the scramble to get out, Isaija made sure no one was left behind, including Trixie the chihuahua.

"Crawled out of the bed and got her out because she was scared to death. He wasn't going to leave without his dog" said Nancy.

The smoke detector that alerted Isaija is one of 103 detectors given out and installed free of charge back in October by the American Red Cross and the Covington Fire Department.

The same firefighters who installed the smoke detector, were the ones who responded to the fire.

Some toys and Christmas presents were lost in the fire, but Isaija has only one thing on his wish list - a new house for his great-grandma.