SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Two Fort Smith teens are being praised for alerting staff at a hotel in Yellowknife about a potential fire.

Paul William Kaeser High School Grade 9 student Joshua Kearley and a friend were staying at Capital Suites hotel during a badminton tournament the weekend of Feb. 26, Kearley said.

At about 2 a.m. on Feb. 27, the boys heard an alarm go off.

"We didn't really think much of it so we just let it be and then once we realized it kept going on for like 20 minutes, we got a little suspicious," Kearley said.

"So we got up and then we went out the hallway and we started smelling smoke, so we were like OK, it's probably a smoke detector."

The boys also noticed smoke coming from another a window they could see from their room, so they went and woke up their badminton coach.

She alerted a staff member, who opened the door of the smoke-filled room. Inside they found an unconscious man.

"When she opened the door it was just full of smoke," Kearley said. "You couldn't breathe if you were in there."

Kearley said once the staff member took over, the boys returned to their room.

He doesn't know what happened to the man. An interview request with the manager at Capital Suites was not returned by press time.

Kearley's father, Dan Kearley, is also the vice principal at Paul William Kaeser High School. Dan said he believes the boys deserve credit for alerting the appropriate individuals to a potentially deadly situation.

"I thought it was very admirable," he said.

"They knew it was a safety issue and some people would have just forgot about it and let someone else deal with it, but instead they chose to deal with it."

The boys will be officially recognized during an assembly at Paul William Kaeser High School in mid-March, Dan said.

"We definitely will at our next student assembly do a little something to say hey, that was really smart thinking," Dan said.

"It was good. (They) probably saved someone's life."

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