GORHAM – All safe after 4-year-old alerts family to fire.

Quick action by a 4-year-old boy, who learned about fire safety just last month, saved his family in an early morning fire this week at the family home in Gorham.

Joseph Lamoin Jr., who will turn 5 in two weeks, woke up shortly after 5 a.m. Monday and smelled the smoke filling the home at 136 Day Road.

“Fire was in the back of my house,” Joseph said Tuesday in his yard, recounting the events. “I crawled on my hands and knees to my mother’s room. I told her there was a fire.”

He alerted his mother, Danielle Hicks; a sister, Kendra Lamoin, 3; and grandmother, Paulene Smith. Hicks said she and her two children all went up stairs to awaken Smith

“I’m proud of him,” his mom said Tuesday outside the home, which was heavily damaged by smoke.

Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre said Joseph had received training in a fire prevention program at day care.

“He’s a hero. He’s my little hero,” said Smith, who is well-known as the woman who volunteered her time picking up littered neighborhood roads.

“He is awesome,” said another grandmother, Kelsey Hicks of Limington.

Lefebvre said this week the mother and two small children were sleeping in a basement apartment. Lefebvre said the fire started when an aquarium heater short-circuited.

While the family escaped the blaze, Hicks said, a pet, a 2-foot long snake named Stretch that lived in the aquarium, died.

She said her son, whom she calls “Jo Jo,” named the pet.

Joseph Tuesday recalled lessons he had learned about fire prevention at his day care, Childhood Adventures in Gorham. The fire prevention program was about a month ago.

“I was very impressed that he remembered” the steps he was taught, Kelley Burghardt, owner-director at the day care, said Wednesday.

Her students were instructed to “get as low as you can,” because smoke usually goes to the top, and to seek help from parents.

“I did what you told me to do,” she said Joseph told her.

“He’s a super kid,” Burghardt said.

Classmates applauded his heroism when Joseph told his story and about the fire trucks. “He got a lot of high fives,” Burghardt said.

The fire drove the family wearing pajamas out into dark and cold but Hicks said she and her family warmed up in a cruiser when Gorham police arrived.

Mike Mason, regional director of Red Cross emergency services, said the agency responded with food, clothing and emotional support at the scene.

“They ended up on the road with basically just clothes on their back,” said Mason who said the family is now staying with relatives.

“It’s an amazing story,” Mason said.

Hicks Wednesday also thanked the day care and parents there who donated “toys, clothes, boots – everything.”

Lefebvre estimated damage to the home at $20,000 in the two-alarm fire, which was called in at 5:12 a.m. Firefighters had the fire under control at 5:55 a.m. and cleared the scene about 7:22 a.m.

Firefighters saved the house, which is owned by Smith.

“The guys did a real good job getting it knocked down,” Lefebvre said about the fire.

Lefebvre said the first floor received smoke damage but the basement would require more extensive repairs. Earlier this week, electricians were working to restore heat in the home, Lefebvre said.

Hicks, accompanied by a friend, went into the home for a couple of hours Tuesday. “We had to wear a face mask to go in,” she said.

Westbrook firefighters assisted Gorham extinguishing the fire with Windham, Baldwin, Standish and Scarborough departments covering Gorham fire stations.

Joseph Lamoin Jr., 4, snuggles with his 3-year-old sister, Kendra Lamoin, Tuesday sitting on a car at the home where his response Monday in a house fire saved the lives of his family. ( Staff photo by Robert Lowell)