Kid ‘hero,’ who dreams of being a firefighter, honored after alerting family to blaze

But his quick actions after rising from bed on March 20 make him a hero, according to the Swanzey Fire Department, which honored him with a ceremony and certificate Monday.

After waking around 7 a.m. that March day to notice flames raging in the garage next to his house, Aksel prevented potential tragedy by alerting his parents — Bryan and Esther Jalava — who were still in bed.

Firefighters responded to Nordshire Farm at 416 Sawyers Crossing Road that morning to douse the second-alarm fire. The blaze destroyed the cinderblock garage and extended quickly to an adjacent wooden garage, coming within feet of the house, according to Swanzey firefighters who were on the scene. The cause could not be determined.

“I think it was a miracle. It was an act of God,” said Bryan Jalava, who works for the Windham County Sheriff’s Office in Vermont. “God definitely woke him up that day. He definitely saved our lives.”

Aksel — who said he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up — got his first glimpse of what that career might look like Monday, as the Swanzey Station 3 crew led him through the firehouse and took him for a whirl around town in an engine.

From beneath the fire helmet awarded to him by the department, Aksel grinned with the humble naivety of a 5-year-old as he donned oversized firefighter’s boots and suspenders, got a tour of the ambulance and explored the station.

“I don’t think he really understands the gravity of what he did because he’s so little,” his father said.

Aksel — who is the youngest of three children in the house — sleeps in the room next to his parents. The morning of the fire, Bryan and Esther Jalava were awake but had not yet gotten out of bed when they heard a knock on the door.

“He’s like, ‘Dad, you’ve got to check this out,’ ” Bryan Jalava said. “His whole room was glowing orange.”

Jenn Frazier, one of the first Swanzey firefighters at the scene, said Aksel “literally saved the whole house” from the flames with his quick response. The fire had already spread to the back end of the garage by the time the department arrived and was, at most, 5 feet from the home, she said.

“It’s official, you’re now a Swanzey firefighter,” Frazier said as the department gifted him his helmet, a cake with frosting spelling out “Hero Aksel” and toy Matchbox fire trucks. “You’re a hero.”

Aksel’s brother, Oliver Raymond, and sister, Hazel Raymond, also recalled the morning of the fire. (Oliver, 12, said he wants to be in a creative profession, maybe as an artist or an animator, when he grows up. Hazel, 8, said she and her best friend both want to be teachers.)

“When I woke up, I heard Aksel and ran straight over to Oliver’s room,” Hazel said. “I punched Oliver to get [him] up and took the dogs outside.”

The three mutts — Minttu, Tuukka and Yrsa — as well as the cat, Ophelia, made it outside unharmed, Oliver said.

“It was just terrifying when we were sitting out in the field,” he said, recalling how the flames raged through the barn and garage.

Bryan Jalava said his wife tried to knock the flames back with a garden hose, but they were too strong. He described the few minutes between making the 911 call and firefighters’ arrival at the scene as “an eternity.”

Swanzey Fire Chief Bill Gould praised Aksel for “having the presence of mind to wake his mom and dad up because he had the sense there was danger.

“If he had ignored it and went back to bed, it could have ended much different,” Gould said.