By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Staff Writer

CHELSEA – Arabella Gonzalez was sitting in her father’s apartment when she started hearing an annoying popping noise, next thing she knew smoke came pouring out of the vents.

With her stepmother in the shower and her brother in the living room playing with a toy helicopter, she new she had to act quickly.

Gonzalez yelled to her stepmother first, “There’s smoke coming out of the vents,” before she ran to her brother and told him “We have to get out now.”

Her stepmother got out of the shower immediately and dried off, while Arabella grabbed one of their two dogs and her brother and got out and crossed the street as fast as she could with her stepmom right behind with dog number two.

“She kept trying to call 911 and there were several other people trying at the same time so she kept getting a dial tone instead of being able to reach anyone,” said Arabella’s mom Mandi Gonzalez. “She alerted apartment management and firefighters that there was a dog still in the neighbors apartment.”

The dog wasn’t just in the apartment, but was also on fire. Miraculously the dog was safely rescued and the fire was put out quickly. It was taken away in an ambulance and still has scars from the terrible event, but is somehow alive and well.

The fire started because a candle was left burning by neighbors and ended up falling over next to a lamp. Luckily, the apartment only sustained smoke damage so not much had to be done in terms of repair, but that doesn’t subtract from the heroic efforts and quick judgment Arabella displayed.

For her quick call to action she received the National Girl Scouts Medal of Honor Lifesaving Award at a ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 10 at the Kanawahala Program Center in Chelsea.

This prestigious award is only given to 100 people across the country each year.

“She was so shocked and started crying as soon as she found out,” Mandi Gonzalez said. “She just did what she thought anybody else would do in that situation and didn’t consider herself to be doing anything special or heroic.”

She received the award on Saturday, Sept. 10, in front of family and friends right before her Girl Scout troops’ field day.

“It was very special and sentimental for her to receive it at this event because she used the Girl Scout motto, ‘Be prepared,’” Gonzalez said. “This just shows that Girl Scouts can actually teach you things about surviving because she could have easily panicked and not done a thing, but she stayed calm and was able to get everybody out of the house.”

Mandi Gonzalez said that her daughter is a leader, takes initiative to get things done and makes sure they are done the right way.

“As a mom it makes you feel very proud that you’ve raised someone like that. We’ve taught her and her brother since they were little what to do in case of emergency’s like that,” she said.