A couple is safe thanks to the heroic act of an 18 year old on the way home from his senior prom.
Saturday night Grayling High School students Austin Molands, his girlfriend Jenna Bryan, and one of their friends were driving back from prom.
That’s when they saw flames shooting into the sky.
They stopped at the house on Dodge Lake Court Road in Otsego Lake Township and came face to face with a wall of fire.
Jenna and Austin saw the flames spreading to the house. He had a gut feeling someone was inside.
"I didn’t know what someone was doing in my house," said Ernest.
Ernest Morris and his wife Pat deliriously woke up from a sound sleep to an unfamiliar figure standing in their doorway.
"They took us through the side and the front porch area and that’s when I saw oh my God our motor home our pole barn is on fire," Ernest said.
The fire quickly spread, and now this, is all that’s left of their home.
"Basically what you lose is all the things on the wall. All the pictures, all the things your kids have done it’s all pretty much gone. If we get half of what we have there we will be happy," he said.
But if Austin Molands and his girlfriend Jenna Bryan hadn’t left prom early and driven by, Earnest and Pat might not have made it out.
"It kind of hasn’t set in yet that I saved two people’s lives," Austin said.
"They could have died if we didn’t show up," he said.
Austin, still in his tux put fear aside, rushing in to the home as soon as he saw Pat’s face in the window.
"I was obviously scared because I didn’t know what was going to happen to me, but I wanted to make sure they were ok before anything else happened," Austin said.
Now as he picks up the pieces the fire left behind, Ernest is still thinking about unfinished business.
"I’m going to find you kids. There’s things we need to talk about to tell you how grateful we really are. Because you’re truly lifesavers," he said.
And in the fall, when distance tests these high school sweethearts, all they have to do is remember the night of their senior prom.
"He’s a hero. He’s my hero," Jenna Bryan said.
Ernest asked that a special thanks also goes out to the Otsego Lake Fire Department for all of their help.
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