If I Had Only Known

[Spencer Stroschein (center) saved his brothers Slayton (right) and Weston (left) and his parents by alerting them to a fire that was spreading through their home.]

Ten-year-old Spencer Stroschein’s messy bedroom may have saved his family’s life.

Spencer usually sleeps in the basement of his family’s home in Alborn Township in St. Louis County. But because his bed was full of stuff, he was sleeping in the family den early Tuesday when he awoke to flames shooting through the floor.

The family has smoke detectors, but the fire wasn’t creating much smoke. It was Spencer who served as the alarm, waking his parents and two younger brothers in time to flee.

His mother, Dana, says the family wouldn’t have awakened if Spencer hadn’t gotten them up.
The home was a total loss. The family also lost their 11-week-old yellow Lab puppy.

What a brave thing Spencer did! It is amazing how he was used to save his entire family. Fortunately, over time, the house and dog can be replaced. The parents and children cannot.

And, the article does bring some shame to me. The article reminded me of my own growing up days, sharing a room with my brother. My brother is 23-months younger than me. My brother also just happens to be the messiest person you will ever meet. No doubt about it. I, on the other hand, am normally much neater in how I want the house to be, or as in our case, the room my brother and I shared. Needless to say, we had countless fights about the mess in our room and how it should be cleaned up. I vaguely remember stretching masking tape down the center of the room, ordering him to keep his stuff on his side of the room and not on my side. I was so much younger then!

Now, if I had only thought about it from this angle, my brother’s mess may have saved my life. Then again, we never had a fire. We didn’t even have a basement for the fire to start in.

On second thought, I don’t think Ricky really ever saved my life after all. He just gave me great headaches over how messy he kept our room!