(Savannah Now) – A 17-year-old Savannah High School student rescued his neighbor from a house fire Monday night.
On Tuesday, Taequan Mitchell was heralded as a hero. Savannah Fire Chief Charles Middleton and a few other members of Savannah Fire gathered outside Mitchell’s Georgia Avenue home Tuesday afternoon.
They were joined by District 3 Alderman John Hall, friends and family and a few school board representatives.
“What you did today was so phenomenal, because it goes against the grain of what people believe today about so many of our young people,” Middleton said.
Mitchell, a senior at Savannah High, got a hero’s welcome at school on Tuesday as well. His heroics were broadcast to everyone at Savannah High during the morning announcements.
“They announced it on the intercom, and when the block had changed and it was time to go to the next period and stuff, all you heard was everybody: ‘Oh Taequan, you’re a hero,’” Mitchell said. “I was getting hugs left and right.”
Mitchell’s mother and uncle were sitting on their porch a little before 10 p.m. Monday night, when his mother saw smoke wafting over Georgia Avenue.
Mitchell’s mother yelled to him, and told him to go see if the smoke was coming from the house of his neighbor and friend, Stephen Solomon.
“I kinda panicked a little bit,” Mitchell said. “I thought, ‘I need to help him.’”
Mitchell said he sometimes helps Solomon with work around the house – little projects like fixing the shed or cutting his grass. He said Solomon is usually out on his porch, and he always makes a point to wave or stop by when he sees him.
READ MORE››
