A 10-year-old Auburn girl becomes Maine’s “G.I. Joe Real American Hero” for alerting her neighbors to a fire.
AUBURN – When the screaming woke Shantel Brochu, the girl thought a bat had flown into the house again and frightened her mom.
The screaming didn’t end, though. When she opened her eyes, her bedroom seemed filled with fog. She heard her dad yell, “Fire!”
Nine-year-old Shantel ran. Her mom and dad, Stephanie and Dale Brochu, were waking her sister and three brothers. Her dad told her to go outside and wait in the family van.
Shantel went outside, where a plume of smoke was rising above their Goff Hill building. Then she disobeyed her father.
“My heart was really, really pounding,” said Shantel. She thought of the people and pets who lived in the building’s two other apartments.
Maybe they hadn’t heard the screams, she thought. Maybe they didn’t know the house was on fire. So she ran around the building and banged on the doors, yelling, “Fire! Everyone needs to get out!”
She woke four people, saving them and their pets.
An unusual ride to school
On Wednesday, 10 months later, police officers and firefighters were shaking her hand and congratulating her. They posed in pictures with her and promised to give her a ride to school someday on their firetruck.
Shantel has been named Maine’s “G.I. Joe Real American Hero.”
Hasbro, the company that makes the G.I. Joe doll, has run the contest for the past three years. They choose one hero in each state, then they give grand prizes to five kids among the 50 winners.
Hasbro officials have promised Shantel some G.I. Joe toys worth $100, her prize for winning the state title. If she’s chosen for one of the grand prizes, she’ll win a $2,500 donation to the charity of her choice and a free trip to Washington, D.C.
The entire experience has overwhelmed Shantel, who wasn’t recognized by officials as a hero until months after the fire.
‘This brave young girl’
Last December, Thomas Poulin, a school resource officer for the Auburn Police, heard about her rescue actions, three months after the fire.
The mother of a tenant told him Shantel’s story at a spaghetti supper to aid the families. A short time later, he heard about of Hasbro’s hero search.
Poulin wrote the company, nominating her for the award.
“In the face of immediate personal danger, this brave young girl was thinking only of the safety of other people,” Poulin wrote. “The situation, really a tragedy, could have been much worse.”
The fire left all three families without homes. Shantel’s family, which owned the Court Street house, plans to rebuild.
Among the items destroyed in the fire was Shantel’s collection of porcelain dolls. They were the only possessions she cared about, she said. Ten months after the fire, she has yet to replace the collection.
And the girl, now 10, said she still feels a little guilty about disobeying her dad.
“It’s OK,” said her mom, Stephanie Brochu. “It worked out.”
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