8-Year-Old Credits Lessons She Learned From WCFD’s Clown Posse With Helping Her Save Her Family During House Fire

Whitfield County’s Clown Posse has been teaching youngsters about fire safety for the past 15 years.

Until this summer, though, they didn’t know for sure their message was sinking in.

Now they do, thanks to the life-saving actions of Adrienne Dunn, an 8-year-old rising third-grader at Antioch Elementary.

“This certifies that Adrienne Dunn has been appointed an official deputy fire marshal for her quick thinking in the fire at her residence,” Lt. Chris West said, reading from a certificate presented to the smiling youngster during a recent ceremony at Station 8, a smile that grew even wider when he handed her a $50 gift card to Walmart for her bravery. 

The excitement at Adrienne’s home on Hill Road started a few minutes after supper on June 5.

Her parents, Jason and Sanna Dunn, decided to take a nap and had just fallen asleep when Adrienne smelled smoke while watching TV in her room and came running in to tell them there was a fire in the kitchen. Apparently, an electrical problem in the hood over the stove started the blaze, which spread quickly after it jumped to the pans below with grease in them.

Mr. Dunn grabbed a burning pan and ran outside with it, in the process slipping and falling and suffering second- and third-degree burns on his legs. He had to spend some time recovering in the burn unit at Kennesaw, but knows it could have been much worse.

“She did good,” Mr. Dunn said. “She moved quickly, and that’s what was important.”

Likewise, her mom described her little hero as “awesome.”

“I mean, she was very brave about it,” she said. “I didn’t really think that my 8-year-old would come do that, and she learned that at school. We’re just very grateful that we had Adrienne there that day. She stays gone with friends a lot now that she’s getting older, but she was at home that day. She saved our lives.”

Adrienne’s story definitely made years of applying and removing clown makeup, coming up with new skit ideas, and going to all 13 primary schools in Whitfield County seven straight weekdays during Fire Prevention Month each October to share their fire safety message with thousands of youngsters worth it all, said Lt. Shawn Damon, who’s known to local children as Kee Kee the Clown.

“We know kids are getting the message and we know kids are using it and applying it,” said Lt. Damon, who attended the ceremony minus his signature clown costume. “But to actually see it and hear about it in a real-life situation, all the years of doing the shows, just hearing this one story, it pays off.”

Lt. Damon and Lt West came up with the idea of using clowns to share fire safety information back in 2001. Their simple two-man show, with a clown and a straight man, started humbly at just a few schools but quickly turned into a more sophisticated effort that now takes the efforts of about 20 firefighters.

The number of fires involving lighters and children has decreased over the years, Lt. West said, “and we attribute that, we hope, to our show and our message.”

“But in 15 years we had never actually had an event where somebody had to call 911, get their family out of the house, and then say the reason they did it was because the fire safety clowns came and told them to do it,” Lt. West said. “Adrienne said the only way she knew to do what she did was because she watched the clowns tell her how to do it. It’s really exciting to be able to actually hear that someone used the information they learned.” 

The fire at the Dunns’ home actually turned into an opportunity for the Clown Posse to share more fire safety messages.

Adrienne’s mom said she didn’t know water makes grease fires worse. “I was throwing water on it like crazy,” she said, “and it hit a wall and that spread the fire.”

Lt. West said a better option is to throw flour on a grease fire.

“But by far the best thing to do is keep a small ABC fire extinguisher in your kitchen,” he said. “An ABC will let you put out several different types of fires, whether it be an electrical fire, whether it be a grease fire, or whether it be just a normal fire of combustible material. It’s just a good thing for everybody to have in their home. Fire extinguishers and working smoke detectors.”

“We’ve got those now.” Adrienne’s mom said.

After the fire, the family’s landlord had an electrician check out all the wiring in the house and install three new smoke detectors and place a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. The old detector didn’t work during the fire, offering the Clown Posse another chance to educate folks about the importance of checking their alarms on a regular basis to make sure they’re working.

Lt. West also emphasized that it’s critical to get out of a burning house quickly.

“I know what the instinct is because everybody wants to save their property,” he said. “It’s just your normal instinct, but we teach just the opposite. We teach get out of the house, stay out, don’t go back in, don’t worry about the fire, let it burn. But that being said, I know it’s just natural instinct that if there’s any way possible, I’m gonna try to save what I’ve got.”

Also on hand for the ceremony were Adrienne’s sister, Briley Dunn, 4, and stepsister, Hanna Hulett, 13, as well as the firefighters who were at the Dunn home just four minutes after receiving the call. Briley was home when the fire erupted; Hanna was not.

Engineer Jesse Bond explained that he and Firefighter Brady Walters and Engineer Charles Blair arrived on the scene that night to find an extinguished stove fire. Terry Warnix was the chief on duty that day.

“We checked the structure with a thermal imaging camera to see if the fire had spread to any other areas of the structure,” Mr. Bond said. “We were unable to locate anything. We also removed smoke from the structure.”

Fire Chief Ed O’Brien led a tour of the fire station for Adrienne and her family, who were all treated to a ride in a fire engine, complete with siren and flashing lights.

Adrienne’s principal, Tracie Dempsey, also dropped by to congratulate Adrienne.

“The kids love the clowns coming every year and they talk about it for months afterwards,” Ms. Dempsey said, “so while it was sad to hear that they had to put what they learned into action, it was great that it actually helped save Adrienne and her family. It always warms our heart when something kids do at school carries over into their everyday life.”