WUSA9: Gwynn Park High School senior, Diel Rhinehart is being hailed a hero after saving his family from a house fire earlier this year. Instead of panicking, Rhinehart jumped into action and he said it’s because of the training he received through the Prince George’s County Fire Cadet Program.
Rhinehart said the fire broke out in his family’s home on a Sunday afternoon in January of this year. He said his little brother was trying to boil eggs but turned on the wrong burner and left the kitchen.
“The night before my mom had cooked something and there was just a little pot of grease left on the back eye,” said Rhinehart.
Credit: Prince George’s County Fire Department
When his brother came back and saw the flames he tried to put it out, but ended up burning both his arms in the process.
“He tried to move it and put water on it, but you can’t mix water and grease so the fire splattered on his arms and he got burned,” said Rhinehart.
Credit: Prince George’s County Fire Department
Instead of panicking, Rhinehart jumped right into action. He’s now a graduate of Prince George’s County fire cadet program. He said the training he received allowed him to act quickly and extinguish the fire.
“You need oxygen fuel and heat and if you remove one of them things then it’s no more fire so I just feel like I had to remove the source of the fire which was the eye. I turned the eye off and then I removed the heat and took it outside,” said Rhinehart.
He said he smothered the fire with flour and was able to throw the pot outside.
The county’s fire cadet program is a two year program available at only two high schools in the county – Gwynn Park and Charles Herbert Flowers.
Prince George’s County Fire Chief Tiffany Green says, in the 10 years the program has been running, her department has been able to retain and hire 60 cadets. High schoolers get real firefighter and hazmat training.
“At the end of the day they leave with skills they can take home they can take into the future that potentially can save lives and that’s what happened here,” said Chief Green.
“It really did help me in that moment because without the program I probably would have been like a regular like everybody else run out the house panicking but nah I’m like I know what to do,” said Rhinehart.
Credit: Prince George’s County Fire Department
The teen also spent the remainder of his senior year working a part-time job to help his mom with the bills. He said he’s been using the money to buy his mom, brother, and himself new clothes because soot ruined all of their wardrobe.
Rhinehart was awarded the fire chiefs award for heroism and the excellence in EMS award for maintaining at least a 3.0 grade point average. He’s attending North Carolina Central University in the fall and plans to major in nursing.
