Two teens were honoured by the city Saturday for their role in saving a west Ottawa neighbourhood from fire in July.
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson presented Amanda Simmons and Matthew Gannon with heroes awards, which gave them a chance to meet the woman whose house they saw on fire in July in Nepean.
Dorothy Laflamme said it was a chance to thank the teens for warning the neighbourhood that her home was burning while she wasn't home.
"They took it upon themselves and I think that's quite something," she said.
Simmons and Gannon were driving on the Queensway when they saw the house on Creekwood Crescent ablaze, called 911 and went banging on doors to warn neighbours.
"We found out if we didn't stop it, the entire street could've burned," Simmons said. "Nobody was waking up so we got people out of their homes . . . it means the world to me."
"It's kind of surreal," said Gannon from that same street. "Here we are in the place where it happened in a totally happy circumstance, where before it was fearful."
Watson said the pair went above and beyond the call of duty.
"They're heroes in the eyes of the City of Ottawa," he said. "It's a small way we can say thank you for a job well done, for lives saved and for actually caring about our community."
Laflamme said the event brought some closure to losing her house.
"Life carries forward," she said, standing near her three girls. "The house is being rebuilt and I think a year from now I'll be able to sit with you and say it's a bad memory, but again . . . it could have been worse."
With a report from CTV Ottawa's Katie Griffin
