Melissa Hearn looks at her husband, Steven, holding their 4-year-old son, Andrew, as visitors speak of Steven Hearn’s heroism during a fire at their mobile home on Gibson Road Thursday. At right, Cathy Wilkerson, Melissa Hearn’s mother, keeps her granddaughter, Abye Hearn, warm in her jacket.(The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN

[12/28/01]Steven Hearn did not waste many words in describing how he put out the fire that broke out in his mobile home Thursday morning

“I got the water hose and started spraying,” he said.

But that does not tell the whole tale of what happened at the home Hearn shares with his wife, Melissa, and their two children, Andrew and Abye, at 4803 Gibson Road. Hearn, 28, has been blind since a hunting accident when he was 12 years old.

Melissa Hearn said the family was asleep in the other end of the mobile home when a smoke alarm went off just before 8:25 a.m. Thursday. The alarm, incidentally, was received three or four years ago in a program administered by the Vicksburg Fire Department

“I grabbed the kids. I had Abye on my hip and I grabbed Andrew by the arm,” she said.

The fire apparently started from a kerosene heater operating in the kitchen area.

Their first attempt at putting out the fire was by throwing water from the sink on it. They then tried to smother it with a blanket.

“That didn’t work,” Melissa Hearn said.

That was when Steven Hearn ran outside, got the water hose, went back inside and started spraying.

“Stevie knew right where the fire was,” she said.

His efforts were successful because the Hearns were able to call back to the E911 dispatch center and tell them to cancel the call for help.

“That’s pretty good for a blind boy,” said Frances Shows, Melissa Hearn’s grandmother who came to see what they could do to help the Hearns.

Steven Hearn said he knew where to spray the water by feeling the heat. And he was then able to drag the smoldering heater out of the house.

Steven Hearn said they won’t be able to stay in the house for a while and didn’t know right off where he and his family will go.

“We have a van and we’ll sleep in that if we have to,” he said.

Fire damage was limited to the kitchen, a dining table and a children’s picnic table. The carpet, however, was soaked and had to be taken out.

Although he’s called his insurance agent, it will probably be several days before a settlement is received.

Melissa Hearn isn’t worried: “We’ve still got a home, so we’ll be just fine.”