By Mary Shapiro

Some Parkway South High School students were among those recently recognized by the city of Manchester for quick thinking which saved lives.

At the April 16 Board of Aldermen meeting, Mayor Asa Wilson presented a proclamation honoring an area resident, Rachel Siegfried, and four students of Parkway South High - seniors Steven Campa, Rebekah Nielsen and Natalie Como and junior Nisha Mitra - for their lifesaving activities in connection with a Feb. 1 fire on Sugar Hill Drive.

Nisha and Natalie attended the meeting to receive the proclamation.

Police Chief John Connolly said Siefried and the students contacted the residents of the home, who were unaware of pending danger from the fire, and they led the three elderly residents to safety.

"Their actions possibly saved lives and lessened the severity of damage caused by an accidental house fire," he said.

Connolly said the group notified authorities, and upon arrival of Manchester police and crews from the West County EMS and Fire Protection District, "There was heavy brown smoke in the area, and flames were venting through the roof near the chimney."

"Because of the actions of these individuals, the safety of the occupants of the home was accomplished through an infrequently seen selfless act."

He said none of the residents of the home were injured.

"The house was heavily damaged," Connolly said. "People could have gotten hurt or killed if these five hadn't intervened."

Nisha, 16, said the fire occurred about 1 p.m.

"The four of us are in a peer teaching group, and we go down to work with seventh-graders at Southwest Middle," she said. "We were driving down there in Steven's car and saw smoke, and pulled closed to the house and noticed a huge fire on the roof. We stopped the car right there and ran out, and Steve started banging on the door.

"I got on my cell phone to call Southwest while Rebekah was calling 911 and Natalie called South. Another lady driving by stopped too, and she also called 911."

She said a man opened the door and wondered what was going on.

"We were banging pretty hard, and told him 'Your house is on fire,'" Nisha said. "Meanwhile, the flames were getting bigger. He, his wife and one of their elderly parents on a walker had no idea at all about the fire. We ran inside and got everyone out. It was our first day of peer teaching, and we knew the kids were waiting for us. But this was definitely the priority."

She said it was an honor to be recognized.

"I never expected it to become this huge," Nisha said. "It's nice, but I'm glad we got a chance to help these people out because they would never have known about the fire otherwise."

You can contact Mary Shapiro at mshapiro@yourjournal.com.