GALAX, Va. – Imagine moving to a new country to build your life and while in bed, you wake up to your home in flames.
“Psychologically, it has been very hard,” said Jose Pineda.
That’s what happened to the Acosta family on December 8th in the City of Galax.
In the early hours of what Sunday morning, Harold Acosta woke up to the sound and smell of something unusual.
“We were all asleep and Harold heard a noise in the living room,“ said Pineda, Harold’s father. ”When he heard the noise, he got up. He saw that there was fire on the top of the roof”
After seeing a fire had started in his house, Harold ran to wake up his parents to get them out.
“Harold saved our lives,” said Olga Acosta, Harold’s mother. “The way our rooms are in our house, they are all in a row. Our rooms were closed off and if he had not heard the noise, seen the fire, we don’t know what would’ve happened.”
She said once they were awake, parental instinct took over to save her children.
“She doesn’t even know how she was able to get both the younger kids out with the car keys in the car and start the car,” said Megan Boyer translating for Olga.
Once the family of five was safe, outside they needed Harold to call for help.
“We had to depend on Harold with his ability to speak English,” said Olga. “[Jose] called 911 and when they answered all he could say was ‘fuego in casa’ which means fire at house. He said that in English and they asked for my address and he gave Harold the phone to give the address.”
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Harold said he was just reacting to what he saw.
“I was kind of half asleep,” said Harold. “[I] didn’t really know, [I] saw smoke in the kitchen, [I] saw fire and I went to wake up my parents because I wasn’t very sure.”
I talked to Galax Fire Chief Mike Ayers about the fire and he said Harold is a hero.
“12:15 in the morning you are going to be a little out of it,” said Ayers. “Harold had the presence of mind to wake everybody else up, recognize what was going on.”
He also said this is the second fire they have had similar to this, so he wants to remind folks to double-check your fire alarms.
“About every fire department I know of has a free program where they will come out and put smoke alarms in for free.”
The Acosta family said their home is not a total loss and they hope to rebuild.
They are just grateful everyone is okay.
