Dec. 12 was a snow day spent at home for students at Bethany Christian Schools in Goshen, Indiana, but for two high school students, Hannah Rose and Elaina Youngberg, the day was anything but boring. The two students, along with Elaina’s mother, Jennifer Youngberg, were instrumental in alerting a Goshen area family to a fire that was quickly spreading from an attached garage to the main house. Their quick thinking helped alert sleeping residents Karen and Larry Long and their grandson Christopher Hutchings to the fire and get them out of the house before it was engulfed in flames.

“They saved our lives,” said Karen in a Dec. 12 interview with The Goshen News. She said she and Larry were in the back of the house and did not hear any smoke alarms.

While driving on County Road 40 in Goshen on the morning of Dec. 12, Elaina, a senior, and Rose, a junior, say, they noticed smoke billowing from a garage attached to a house. Jennifer stopped the car and called 911 to alert the fire department, and the two students ran toward the house to try to alert the occupants inside to the growing fire.

“By the time we were running to the house couldn’t see because of all the smoke,” said Elaina Youngberg in a Dec. 14 interview. “We didn’t know if there were people in there, so we were just banging on the front door and windows.”

Elaina and Rose say they suspected the house was occupied because several cars were parked on the property. A sign on the front door instructed visitors to come around to the back doors. As they circled around the house, Elaina and Rose continued banging on doors and windows, trying to get the attention of residents inside. As they were banging on the front door, they saw a man peek out at them between curtains, but no one exited the house.

“At that point I was filled with fear,” says Elaina. “We now knew there were people in the house and we could see flames along the whole top of the house and knew the roof was on fire.

The students also flagged down Goshen residents Nathan Kaufmann and Angie Schmucker, who stopped to help. When no one exited the house, Kaufmann broke a window, and Elaina tried to break into the house through the screen door at the back. The noise first alerted Hutchings, who came outside, soon followed by Karen. Schmucker entered the house and helped escort Larry out, soon followed by the family’s pet dog.

The family had been asleep and were confused and disoriented when they woke up to their house burning around them. None of the family members was dressed for the cold northern Indiana weather, and they took shelter in warm cars to wait for the fire department to arrive.

According to The Goshen News, the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Both Elaina and Rose say they would do the same thing again, even though Tuesday’s events have left them feeling shaken and with many questions.

“For both of us, I feel like a lot of ‘what if’s?’ are coming to our mind. What if this would have happened? What if it didn’t go like it did?” said Rose in a Dec. 12 interview. “We got really lucky that we got out safely. And I hope anybody else would have done the same thing.”

Bethany Christian Schools is a grade 4-12 school that is part of the Mennonite Schools Council of Mennonite Church USA.