Castle Rock Firefighter Kevin Travis sat on the bumper of his rig on Thursday afternoon waiting. He wasn't waiting for a fire, but for a little visitor.
“We’re just waiting to see Jordan," he said.
Jordan Lineard is a 10-year-old boy who lives in the neighborhood of Travis's firehouse. He’s a familiar face there.
“He will help us sometimes with chores. Washing the trucks. We’ll look at gear. We’ll do a bunch of education. Anything and everything fire-related,” Travis explained.
One Dec. 1 around midnight, Jordan’s time spent at the fire station was rewarded.
“We got a call to Jordan’s house; we didn’t even realize it was Jordan’s house until after the fire was out,” Travis remembered.
Luckily these firemen recently taught Jordan how to check smoke alarms to see if they were expired.
He did check.
They were expired.
He helped his family get the right ones. It was a move that helped save their lives that Saturday night.
About a week after the fire, Jordan and his family got to see the firemen for the first time.
“You did the smoke detectors. You got everybody out of the house. And then you called 911,” Travis said to Jordan.
“Yea,” Jordan mumbled modestly.
“Dude that’s awesome. Way to go man,” Travis said with a high five.
Jordan stayed calm throughout the whole ordeal.
“I wanted to make sure everybody was together," Jordan said. "I took a look at the flames, and it hit the roof, and I backed up, and I was like ‘whoaaaa something’s going on.’”
Helping people seems to come natural to this kid.
“It’s just a great feeling that I saved my family’s life,” Jordan said, cool as can be.
It’s a skill Travis hopes to see more of.
“You gonna be a fireman someday?” the six-year veteran asked the boy. “Yea,” Jordan responded. “I think I’m gonna do the explorer. Then the academy. Then be a firefighter for a year. Then probably do baseball.”