A Maryland boy braved being injured or killed in an apartment fire to save his 2-year-old sister.
La’Prentis Doughty Jr.’s family lost all of their valuables in the blaze two days before Thanksgiving, but it could’ve been worse if the 11-year-old did not leap into action and show courage.
The state fire marshal said an unscathed La’Prentis ran out of his Salisbury, Maryland, apartment to safety right after discovering it was on fire. But when he realized his sister Loyalty was still upstairs, he immediately went back inside and rescued her from the second floor, burning his hand on the way out, officials said.
La’Prentis said he wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he had left the toddler in the home.
“If I didn’t save my sister, I would be mad at myself because I could’ve saved her easily. I could have saved her, and I would risk my life for my sister,” he told reporters.
Maryland’s Office of the State Fire Marshal said the fire was caused by an “accidental-unspecified electrical event at an outlet in the bedroom.”
La’Prentis mother Keishauna Banks said she was on her way home from the grocery store stocking up on food for Thanksgiving dinner when she received a frantic call from her best friend about the blaze.
“We lost everything except for the clothes that we had on our backs,” Banks wrote on an online fundraiser.
