TIFFIN, Ohio — A resident advisor at Tiffin University is being celebrated for taking action during a fire on Sunday and potentially saving lives.
"I heard a bunch of residents banging on doors and screaming: 'There's a fire, there's a fire, everybody out,'" Hope Love, a first-year student, said.
She woke up Sunday at 3:30 a.m. to cries of fire echoing throughout the second floor of Friedley Hall.
So, Love did something no one else had the forethought to do before getting out: fight the fire.
"I make my way down the hallway towards the stairs and I see a giant fire in a suitcase and I was like, 'that's a fire, I know where the fire extinguisher is,'" she said.
Tiffin fire chief Rob Chappell said the fire started from a suitcase pushed up against a radiator in a dorm room.
He said before every school year, his department goes on campus and trains every RA in basic emergency response skills and allows them to practice with a live fire extinguisher.
Although the fire was still small at the time, Love stopped the fire from spreading further and potentially saved lives, Chappell said.
"We teach them how to use a fire extinguisher, which is a big part of the program," he said. "But then, we also go through things that they can look for in their residence rooms, things that will help to hopefully prevent fires."
Love and most of her floor's residents are back in their rooms.
She said she doesn't feel like a hero but is happy to know that she had the knowledge to help out where she could when her residents needed her.
"I feel like it was a lot less scary because I was like, 'oh, a fire extinguisher. I've touched that before, it's not a big deal,'" she said. "And I knew what to do. It was good that I knew how to handle it."
Because of Love's quick thinking and important actions Tiffin City Council is honoring her with the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Tiffin Fire & Rescue Department.