BATON ROUGE — When 17-year-old Preston Guilory and his mother, Karla, were driving through the 9500 block of Fox Run Ave., just off Highland Rd. on the afternoon of April 18th, they didn’t think much of the smoke rising from a distant apartment building.
“We were riding by, and we’re from the country, so we automatically assumed that the smoke was like a burn pile because people do that where we’re from. And then my mom was like ‘Oh, I don’t know, that house looks like it’s on fire,’ so I was like we can go ride by and see,” Preston told UWK.
Once Preston and his mother got closer to the apartment building, they realized it was on fire. Preston told his mother to stop their vehicle so he could see if anyone needed help.
Standing in front of the building, Preston said he could feel the heat emitting from the closed front door, so he kicked it open and began screaming for anyone inside to come out.
“I couldn’t see the fire, but the house was filled with smoke, and the smoke just started flying out,” Preston said.
Once inside the apartment, Preston said no one was home, so he walked back out and grabbed a nearby hose that was hooked up and started spraying down the outside of the building and the adjacent house so it wouldn’t catch on fire. Preston said the siding on that house had already started melting, so he wanted to make sure the flames didn’t spread any further.
Within minutes, Baton Rouge Fire Department arrived, ensuring the fire was out and confirming that no people or animals were inside the building.
As all of this was happening, Preston’s mom said she was standing by in awe of her son’s bravery, even though she had told him not to go inside the burning building.
“He was the first one in the apartment and was yelling, ‘Is anybody in here? Is anybody sleeping?’ That was very scary because in order to sometimes save people, you have to put your own self in danger,” Karla said. “He’s just 17-years-old but he’s a helper. He’s always going to help. And so my first thought was, please don’t go in there, but I can’t stop him. He’s a big kid,” Karla said.
The Guilorys say no one was inside the apartment because the owners were at an Easter party when the fire started.
“Really, I just wanted to make sure nobody was hurt. I think that’s the biggest thing because it was the right thing to do,” Preston said. “It was just an adrenaline thing, like survival instincts just kicked in.”
Preston is a Junior at False River Academy in New Roads, where he plays pitcher and first base for the baseball team and was named first team all district this previous season.
Preston says he plans to attend Louisiana Tech and wants to become a pharmacist when he gets older, noting that he doesn’t have any plans to pursue firefighting in the future.
“This hasn’t changed my mind (about my future). I just like to help people,” Preston said
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