6-year-old alerts family to two-alarm blaze in Swampscott

SWAMPSCOTT, Mass. (MyFoxBoston.com) -- A firefighter's 6-year-old daughter is being credited with saving her family from an early morning two-alarm blaze that heavily damaged their home. It was a close call at the Pierro family's Swampscott home.

Lori Pierro was downstairs when her 6-year-old daughter Victoria woke her up. 

"She came downstairs and I looked, and I just saw the glow in the kitchen."

Lori and little Victoria sprang into action.

Lori "just grabbed [Victoria]. We ran upstairs. Got my sons and my husband and just ran and screamed, 'Fire! Fire! Fire!'"

Victoria's quick thinking got the whole family out in the nick of time.

"By the time we got out of the house and to the driveway, it was just...that whole side of that building where my daughter's room is gone. Like, all fully involved," Lori said.

Lori's husband Anthony is a firefighter in Swampscott. His fellow firefighters answered the call.

"For a fire to get such headway in such a tight neighborhood...we heard reports that there were loud popping sounds," said Swampscott Fire Chief Kevin Breen. "People were investigating gun shots as far away as a few blocks from here. So that may have been what alerted Victoria."

But it was Victoria's fire training at home and school that gave the kindergartner the courage to save the day.

"She knew what to do, and our smoke detectors were going off as we were going upstairs to get the boys and my husband. So she caught it before then," Lori said. "She's our hero."

The house has been deemed a total loss. Clothes, Christmas presents and a new car are all gone.

But Lori says that's not important. 

"We're all safe. And we have great friends and family, and they're putting their big arms around us."

The Anthony Pierro Fire Fund has been set up through the Lynn Fireman's Federal Credit Union. Donations can be sent directly to 30 Boston St., Suite 9, Lynn, Mass. 01904.

Cox Media Group