Autistic girl saves family from fire

[The Straight Story]

Autistic girl saves family from fire

JHERI BAGGETT
Megan Davis, right, with her mother, Donna, remembering the details of the fire that heavily damaged the family home.

by Jheri D. baggett
staff writer

Among a thick layer of soot, a burned roof top and melted fragments of house decorations, is a hero and her family who are trying to put their lives back together after withstanding a devastating loss. A 19 year-old girl, living with autism, is defined by her mother as an angel; but to others she is labeled a hero.

It was 10:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 22, 2004 and Meagan’s 12 year-old brother Jeremy had been asleep on the couch. Her father, Ted Davis had gone out earlier to feed the family dog Scruffy, a life long companion of Megan’s. As he put out his last cigarette for the night, his ashes flew into a nearby wastebasket igniting a flame.

Megan Davis was awakened in her room by what she calls a “stink.” She got out of bed to retrieve a can of air freshener to ease the odor. As she sprayed, she entered her parent’s room to alert them to the smell. When Donna Davis awoke, at first she smelled nothing and then she saw the horrific sight of flames engulfing her garage and den. “We should have smelled it before her,” she said.

As the fire spread, smoke filled the house and the heat began to melt away the family’s treasured possessions. “Our whole lives burned up in that house but I’m so thankful for my guardian angel,” Donna said.




http://www.cabotstarherald.com/Pages/12-08-04/Autistic%20girl%20saves%20family%20from%20fire.htm

[noamnety]

1. I'm not sure what to think

It's a nice heartwarming story, but the line about her having a "keen sense of smell" was bizarre, like something you'd say about a dog, I somehow doubt the author would have put that in if it were a story about a non-autistic 19 year old smelling smoke and waking her family.

And why wouldn't the family learn real sign language? Why teach her a system of made up signs that ensures she can't use it to communicate with anyone outside the family?

okay, I'm done ranting.

[prodigal_green]

2. People with autism are often

very sensitive to changes in their environment to the point of discomfort, which has been posited as an explanation for why many focus in on an object or repetitive action. Smoke would be a pretty big change in environment I would think.

[AlienGirl]

3. Autistic-spectrum people are often hypersensitive

People on the autistic spectrum often have overactive senses. It sounds like the woman in the story is probably hyper-olfactory.

Tucker

[noamnety]

4. maybe I'm overreacting

Pregnant women are hypersensitive to smells too, but I can't imagine a pregnant woman waking up to a fire, rescuing the family, and a reporter saying "thanks to her keen sense of smell ..."

Maybe the parents said it that way to the journalist, though.