NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Just after 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7, Lara West thought she heard the fire alarm going off in the apartment above her at Anchor Point Apartments in Newport News, and it wouldn't stop. After investigating further, she smelled smoke.
She alerted her 17-year-old son Matthew Wilson, a junior at Warwick High School, who was playing video games with headphones in. Wilson jumped into action, telling West to get out right away.
"He went straight upstairs and started beating on walls, he's taking the kids down the steps," West said.
Wilson went back into the building two or three times, he estimated, to make sure people were able to leave, and to also make sure his dog could get out. Firefighters also went back to rescue his cat Levi, who is doing fine after receiving oxygen.
Wilson said he wasn't sure why he went back into the building.
"I just did it," he said. "It was just second nature."
Currently, West and Wilson are staying at a hotel in Yorktown and said they have lost everything. They want to get an apartment in the same complex they were in before.
Firefighters believe no one was injured in the fire that they knew of.
"I don't think a mother could be prouder than I am today," West said.