Hometown Hero: 'I Wasn’t Scared. I Just Wanted Her To Be Okay'

Life hasn't changed much for 12-year-old Seth Eliason in the two weeks since he was called before the Minnetonka City Council to accept the city's Lifesaving Award.

"Yeah, some of my friends have called me [a hero]," Eliason said. "Some of my parents' friends and teachers have called me that. Only if I've told them about what happened, though."

Eliason thought he smelled burning wood returning from a trip to the video game store on the evening of March 22. But instead of ignoring the scent, Eliason sought out its source like a bloodhound, rushing from house to house on Woods Way. At first, it could have seemed like a false alarm — what looked like smoke coming from his next-door neighbor's house was only sweet-smelling dryer steam, he said.

It didn't take long, though, for Eliason to realize there was something terribly wrong at an elderly neighbor's house, 40 feet behind his.. Eliason sprang into action, sprinting around to the woman's front door.

“I wasn’t scared," he said, "I just wanted her to be okay.”

When no-one came to the door to answer his pounding, and lacking a cell phone, Eliason quickly roused a neighbor, who dialed 911.

“My school and my Boy Scout troop helped me know what to do in this situation," he said.

Part of a tangle of roads on the Minnetonka-Hopkins border, Woods Way can be hard to find; instead of waiting for firefighters to get lost, though, Eliason went up to the main road to guide them in.

“He was hugely helpful," said Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Fox. “It’s one of those areas that is hard to get into.”

By this point, there was so much smoke churning from the house, Eliason's mother Ann said she could hardly see her neighbor's house.  By the time Minnetonka firefighters rescued the elderly woman, she was "totally black, covered" in soot, Seth Eliason said.

Thanks to firefighters, paramedics, and the staff of Hennepin County Medical Center — and Eliason's quick thinking, according to city and fire officials — the woman survived. She's currently recuperating from severe smoke inhalation at her daughter's house while her own home is being repaired.

“He doesn’t think he did anything! He thinks he just acted naturally—which is the way you want it," said his mother.

“He’s the kind of kids who jumps to things—he cares," she added. "He didn’t just assume that someone else had called.”

echoed Ann Eliason's praise in presenting the award at the April 18 City Council meeting. 

"This may even qualify you for a few points towards a cell phone at some time," Schneider said with a laugh.

At the ceremony, Seth Eliason thanked his teachers at and his Boy Scout troop at the St. Therese of Deephaven church for the training that helped him on that March evening.

Eliason said that some day, he hopes to be a professional fisherman — his favorite sport — or tennis player, or perhaps a geologist. Still, Assistant Fire Chief Fox thinks he has the makings of a firefighter.

"Possibly," he said. "That's how we get a lot of them!"