Off-Duty Cherokee Firefighter Helps Elderly Woman After Home Fire

CANTON, GA — An off-duty Cherokee County firefighter assisted a 79-year-old lady on Jan. 24 when he noticed that her home was possibly on fire.

Captain Brady Cornelison was heading south on Hickory Flat Highway at 11 a.m. when he noticed smoke coming from the back of a single-story residence at 5691 Hickory Flat Highway.

Cornelison pulled in the driveway and went to the door to alert anyone who was inside.

“I knocked several times and no one came to the door. I noticed that the door was unlocked, so I went inside and asked if anybody was there,” Cornelison said in a news release.

After he searched the house, Cornelison went outside and saw the homeowner at the back of the home looking up at the chimney. She saw Cornelison and said that she thought her home was on fire. The homeowner said later that she had noticed that her buck stove was extremely hot, and she looked out her back window and saw the smoke.

Cornelison called 911 to report the fire. Minutes later, firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire.

The homeowner, who was a little shaken, said that she wanted to, “thank all the firefighters for coming out and helping her with this situation.”