‘Feel like a knight’: 11-year-old honored for saving brother from apartment fire

CHARLOTTE — An 11-year-old girl was honored Wednesday for saving her little brother from an apartment fire in March. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey presented Tyshayla Wilson with a heroism award for her actions.

When she realized her kitchen was on fire, Tyshayla calmed her 5-year-old brother and called 911.

“When I was a little girl, I always used to pretend I was a princess,” Tyshala said. “But now that I’m older, I feel like I’m kind of a knight.”

The EMS dispatcher on the other end of the line, John Schuler, was also awarded on Wednesday. At the ceremony, Tyshayla thanked Schuler for his help in getting her and her brother to safety. She even asked if she could hand him his award.

“He’s one of the most important people in my life now because he saved me and my brother,” she said.

Tyshayla said Schuler kept her calm and helped lead firefighters to the open window where she and her brother were trying to escape the smoke.

“In this case, if [firefighters] had to go around the front to find them, the outcome probably wouldn’t have been the same,” Schuler said.

“They tried to take me first for some reason,” Tyshayla said. “But I told them to grab my brother because he was more scared than I was.”

In 2018, Amy Rae and two other Charlotte firefighters taught fire safety at Tyshayla’s school. Now, they know that lesson likely helped Tyshayla when she needed it most.

“She did everything we teach in third grade for fire safety,” Rae said. “She saw there was a danger. She got her brother to safety. She got herself to safety.”

Tyshayla said her babysitter stepped out to get dinner for them that night in March, but left the oven on. There was oil in the oven, which caught fire and the flames spread quickly.

That person doesn’t babysit for them anymore, Tyshayla said, but she forgives him for not being there when she and her brother were in danger.

The entire experience has changed Tyshayla’s outlook on life.

“I just have to say that if I wasn’t here now, my mom would be in tears, my grandma would be crying, and it would be an endless nightmare,” Tyshayla said tearfully. “It’s really hard for me to say that I’m actually just a little girl, because I feel like a woman.”

All third grade students in CMS go through fire safety education from the fire department. Because of the pandemic, not every classroom got training this year, but the goal is to resume that next year.

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Firefighters battle 2-alarm house fire in Ballantyne neighborhood

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