On Saturday January 15, 2022, Kayla Dahl woke up to her toddler saying, “Momma, hot.” Kayla and her husband, Nathan Dahl, were sound asleep. They didn’t smell the smoke that was engulfing their home since they lost their sense of smell due to Covid. However, their toddler, Brandon Dahl, felt the heat from the flames.

It wasn’t necessarily unusual for Brandon to wake up and say “hot.” This often meant that he felt warm and wanted fewer blankets on top of him. It took a minute for Kayla to realize that the situation that morning was quite different. She explained, “I just saw the flames coming out of our of the living room and into our bedroom.”

After Brandon woke up Kayla, Kayla immediately woke up her husband. Nathan remembers hearing his wife yell, “Fire, fire, fire!” Nathan is a volunteer firefighter, so at first he assumed his wife was saying he needed to go to work to put out a fire. Then he realized the fire that needed to be put out was in his own home.

When Nathan saw the flames, he knew his family needed to vacate the home immediately. He explained, “I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ My heart just dropped. In my head, I already knew this house was gone. We had to get out.”

Because Nathan is a volunteer firefighter, he had prepared his children for what to do in the case of a fire. They had also practiced evacuating from a fire. Due to this practice, the parents were able to wake up their other four children and escape from their home in less than a minute.

Watch the video below to hear about this devastating experience from Kayla and Nathan including how if it weren’t for Brandon, they may not have survived.

The Dahl family literally lost everything in the fire, but the community pulled together to help them get back on their feet. One of Kayla’s friends set up a GoFundMe to raise money for the family’s needs. Other people in the community donated clothes, toys and even furniture.

Immediately after the fire, the Dahl family moved in with Kayla’s grandparents who live nearby, and they have rented a home where they plan to stay until they rebuild. Thanks to all the generous donations from the community, they are getting closer to having everything they’ll need to start over. Kayla said, “We are very, very, very grateful for everybody and everything.”

Kayla and Nathan are forever thankful that Brandon woke them up just in time to escape. Kayla said, “Brandon definitely had a guardian angel help him get out of that living room. It’s honestly nothing short of a miracle. An absolute miracle.” She added, “I definitely have a different outlook on life now. It’s made me appreciate and better understand what matters most.”