William Dale
Published online June 17, 2026, at www.pontiacjournal.com
LUSKVILLE — Two 11-year-old boys are being credited with helping prevent a patio fire from spreading to a home after spotting smoke and alerting a sleeping homeowner on June 3.
Daxton Crête and Philippe Décary had just stepped off their school bus and were playing golf in their backyard around 3:45 pm when they noticed a plume of black smoke rising from behind a row of trees.
The boys alerted Philippe’s father, Jordan Décary, before running toward the source of the smoke. There, they discovered a residential patio engulfed in flames.
The pair rushed to the front door and repeatedly rang the doorbell and knocked in an effort to alert the homeowner, who was asleep inside.
“We knew he was in there because his dog was looking out the window, moving up and down,” recalled Daxton.
While the boys continued trying to get the homeowner’s attention, Jordan Décary called 911 and headed to the scene. By the time he arrived, flames had begun spreading toward the exterior wall of the house.
“If it had been another five or 10 minutes, the outside wall of the house would have collapsed,” he said.
Using a nearby garden hose, Décary began fighting the fire while instructing the boys to move to a safe distance and help direct emergency vehicles to the property. The homeowner and his dog escaped safely after being awakened by the commotion.
Firefighters arrived shortly afterward and extinguished the remaining hot spots.
Officer-Captain Brian Middlemiss of the Pontiac Fire Department said the cause of the fire remains undetermined, but investigators are examining whether sunlight reflected through glass patio panels may have ignited dry material in planters on the deck.
“That’s one of the things that we look at,” said Middlemiss. “Usually, if it’s coming from the sun, it’s a reflection on a window or something like that. It has to be at a certain angle.”
Since the incident, the boys have been talking about becoming firefighters themselves.
“I am very proud of them,” said Jordan Décary. “They didn’t hesitate when it came to the safety of their neighbour.”
