ADDISON TWP. – A quick-thinking 5-year-old boy was able to save himself and his older sister from a house fire Friday night, just east of the Village of Leonard.

The fire happened at 1465 E. Leonard Rd. between Hagerman and Secord Lake roads.

According to Addison Fire Chief Jerry Morawski, the boy and his 9-year-old sister were watching TV in their parents’ bedroom when he went to the kitchen to get a drink of water.

The boy discovered some smoke, walked over to a bedroom in the back of the house and “saw smoke and fire through the crack of the door.”

“He immediately grabbed his sister and ran outside and told his mom and dad,” Morawski said. “We told him he did a really good job. He didn’t hide. He got his sister and exited the house. That was perfect.”

The father went inside and armed himself with a fire extinguisher, but the situation was too much for him to handle. “He grabbed the guinea pigs and ran out of the house. His wife was already calling 9-1-1,” Morawski said.

Addison firefighters got the call at 7:59 p.m.

Morawski, who was on Oakwood Rd. returning from a mutual aid call in Oxford, was the first one on scene 7 minutes later. “The first engine was 2 minutes behind me,” he said.

The fire spread to the kitchen, hallway and another bedroom on the main floor as well as to the attic above, according to Morawski.

“About a third of the house was actually (involved),” he said.

The fire was declared under control 36 minutes after the call came in.

About 3,000 gallons of water was used to extinguish it. Firefighters cut holes in the house’s metal roof as part of their attack.

The home’s interior suffered much more damage than was visible from the outside. Morawski was “amazed” when he saw “how bad it really was.”

“There was a lot of heat damage. There was a lot of roof damage,” he said. “They’ll probably have to tear the whole house down. I’d be amazed if they keep it . . . But I’ve been surprised before.”

Morawski said the cause of the fire is “undetermined,” but he has ruled it as accidental. Firefighters from Oxford, Dryden, Almont and Washington assisted Addison at the scene, while the Oakland Twp. Fire Dept. covered the main station on Forest St.