LAFAYETTE, La. — A house fire erupted last Wednesday on Gerald Drive.
According to the Lafayette Fire Department, one of the house owners had escaped the burning house but returned to save the family's 3 pets.
After becoming trapped in the smoke, she closed herself in the bedroom and called 911.
The dispatcher who picked up was Shawnee Prejean, who stayed on the phone for 17 minutes with the victim and guided her through the dangerous situation.
Prejean tells KATC that being on the line for so long and reassuring the victim helped de-escalate.
"At one point she said I'm going to burn to death and I said no you're not," said Prejean. "I was trying to get her to keep communicating with me so I asked the same questions over to get her to give me a good answer. Which room are you in? Can you tell me which bedroom you're in? She was able to tell me she was in the back bedroom near the shed, and that was the piece of information I needed to get to the crews on the ground."
By keeping the victim calm and relaying information about the victim's location inside the house to the firefighters on the scene, Prejean aided in the rescue.
In addition, she provided life-saving information to the house owner about how to minimize smoke inhalation.
"I just kept telling her they're there they're coming to you now. We are on scene they're going to be with you. I think when she realized she can hear them on the other side of the wall she was you know there was a break of relief." Prejean said.
Prejean said she just did her job but believes a higher power also helped the victim escape from the fire.
"I'm very thankful because I think you know I think there was something other than us that was helping her because it was very serious."
