3-Year-Old Hero Alesaundra Tafoya Walks to Fire Station to Save Father

Toddler Alesaundra walked two blocks to the fire department all alone, saving her father's life.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on August 23 2010

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Alesaundra Tafoya had never left her house before without a grown-up present—let alone walked two full blocks on her own. But when her father collapsed while she was alone with him, the 3-year-old girl knew just who could help: the fire department.

Tafoya’s family lived just two blocks from the fire station in Manteca, Calif., and her mother had told her that the firefighters there would be able to help out in case of emergency. So, when she wasn’t able to wake her father, she knew that the fire department was the place to go. Even though she’d never walked there before, the toddler ran over to the station, where she encountered a group of men at a support group next door. She told them about her father’s health problems, and they walked her over to the fire station, where two firefighters were prepared to help.

“She is quite the little trooper – very poised and totally in control,” one of the firefighters told the Manteca Bulletin.

They walked back to Alesaundra’s house with her, where they discovered her unconscious father and arranged for an immediate hospital transport. It seemed that he had reacted badly to some prescribed medicine, and doctors said that if Alesaundra hadn’t alerted someone, he likely would have died.

Now, the firefighters are planning to give a “hero’s commendation” to young Alesaundra. And maybe, a few years from now, they’ll have a job for her?

Filed under: Heroes,

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