William Rodda was just a normal teenager. He loved hanging gout with friends and being able to help support his family. The 16-year-old from Brisbane, Australia likes to also spend time on his computer, and he enjoys watching anime and babysitting.
Thanks to a recent experience, William is also quite different from his peers in a very significant way: William rescued a child from a burning 2 story building in Brisbane.
As the teenager explained, his family owns multiple properties throughout Brisbane. On a recent evening, William was at one of the rural properties that is about 170 acres in size.
“I was walking between the horses and where a new building was going,” he said, adding that suddenly he realized that something was seriously amiss. In the darkness, William could see that the building was glowing red and was completely engulfed in flames.
The next moment William will remember for the rest of his life: he heard the screams coming from the panicked mother of a young child who was still inside the building.
Since the rural fire brigade is not that large and would probably take a while to arrive, William said he knew he had to take action.
“I heard from the mother that her child was left inside, and that her son was about 1 year old,” he said.
William called over to his family and asked them to help. Then, as his own mum watched, the teenager ran into the building.
“I ran inside and up the stairs and I even had to bash down some flaming planks and I found the child screaming,” William said, adding that fortunately, it was not too difficult to find the toddler, since he was crying extremely loudly.
“Good thing he was close to the ground too, or the smoke would have got him. I picked him up and tried to protect him as I ran for the exit.”
William said the parents of the young boy were extremely grateful to him for saving their son and gave the Rodda family two baby lambs as a gesture of their appreciation.
The fire brigade showed up and made sure everything was okay and that no one was hurt in the devastating fire.
Looking back, William is glad that he was literally in the right place at the right time, and that he was able to spring to action so quickly to be sure the toddler was saved from the fire.
“I still remember what the boy was wearing: a white shirt and long pants. He must have been so hot,” he said.