Winchester’s youngest hero was officially honored Wednesday night.
At the beginning of the Winchester City Council’s regular meeting, eleven-year-old Kylar Thompson was recognized by the Illinois State Fire Marshall’s Office for his actions in saving his 13 year old brother, four year old sister and himself when their house caught fire last December 14th.
McKenzie Evans of the State Fire Marshall’s Office and herself a Winchester native presented a plaque to Kylar. The plaque read, “In recognition of your heroic life-saving actions during a house fire in Winchester, Illinois. By rescuing your two siblings, you demonstrated extraordinary courage, selflessness, and quick thinking under extreme circumstances.”
Kyler’s parents were on the road at the time of the fire. Abby Thompson recalls the phone call she got from her son that day. “That was one of the scariest moments of my life. He said the house was on fire. We thought maybe a piece of paper caught fire, something like that, can you put it out. He said no, it’s full smoke we can’t get in there. We told him to get out. They heard an explosion, and that’s when we told them to get out of the truck, go to the neighbors. We turned around and I don’t think we ever flew back home as fast as we did.”
Kyler’s mom said he heard his sister scream and found her in a room full of smoke. He got her to safety, then went back in the mobile home to rescue his older brother and their dogs, all with no shoes on, with snow on the ground. Kyler suffered frost burn on the bottoms of his feet.
The Thompson’s are in temporary housing that’s over an hour from Winchester. They would like to rebuild in Winchester, but time will tell.