'Woke up to screaming': Teenage sister recalls trying to save 9-year-old brother as fire engulfed home
At just 16 years old, Hannah Miller has faced a near-death experience that left her parents fighting for their lives and her 9-year-old brother dead.
It's hard to imagine what it would be like being inside a mobile home during a deadly fire. Miller, who recalls being overcome by smoke Tuesday night, says it's an experience she'll never forget.
"As of last night, I was a wreck," Miller told WRAL News. "The first time I heard my brother was dead, I laughed because it was like a joke. There's no way. He's too full of life."
Tragically, it was all-too-real. At just 9 years old, Thomas Miller died in the Feb. 20 fire that burned the family's home on Dasher Lane.
Miller says the fire started in the bedroom she shared with her brother.
"I woke up to orange flames," she said. "I woke up to him screaming. Because the fire was mostly his bed."
She woke her father. Then she grabbed her brother and headed for the bathroom.
"I got out of the bathroom because, what am I doing? I'm going to trap myself in here. I'm about to make this bathroom my coffin if I stay here," she said.
Miller and her brother left the bathroom and were separated in the smoke-filled mobile home.
Her dad told her to low crawl to the back the back door.
She made it out.
Her 9-year-old brother didn't.
She was told the news while she was in the hospital.
"My Aunt April came in, and that's when I got the news," she recalls. "My little brother, Thomas James Miller, full of life. Bright blue eyes. Absolutely funny. I mean, everyone in school adored him."
Miller says her father continues to blame himself for not saving her brother's life. She's trying to make him realize this was a tragic accident.
"Don't do that," she says. "It's not your fault. He did everything he could. My dad, he was a superhero."
It was an accidental fire caused by a space heater as her family tried to stay warm on a cold night.
Now, Miller said she is hopeful God will heal her parents and hold her brother.
Her mother and father are in serious condition at the UNC Burn Center in Chapel Hill.
Her full interview with WRAL's Gilbert Baez is available here.
