A preschooler saved his family from dying in a fire. Soon, they all may be camping for lack of another home.

BRATTLEBORO — Five-year-old Nolan Goodnow just received a national Youth Hero Award for waking his sleeping family last December during this town’s largest fire of the year.

Now all the preschooler needs is a place to put that honor.

Nolan was supposed to be in bed last Dec. 9 when he bounded out at 3:30 a.m., alerting everyone to the sound of beeping.

His mother, Allison Gleason, first thought it was a plow truck in the parking lot, but when she looked outside her second-floor Western Avenue apartment, she saw that growing flames had triggered a fire alarm.

Stopped by smoke upon opening the staircase door, Gleason had only minutes to jump 15 feet out a window so she could hope to catch her son, his 3-year-old sister and their grandmother when they leapt.

Firefighters from 10 area departments who battled the total-loss blaze agree: If the preschooler hadn’t roused his mother, the family would have perished within minutes.

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“Even if it’s temporary or a short-term lease,” Nolan’s mother said, “we just need a roof.”

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