By Karenlyn Barone
Skellington could have gone out with his cousin that night, but for the first time ever, his cousin begged off, saying he had too much studying to do. So, in a stroke of good fortune, Skellington stayed home and ended up saving the lives of his mother and two younger sisters.
At 2 a.m. on Dec. 2, Skellington discovered a fire in the basement of his home, and woke his family out of their deep sleep, rushed them to safety and then went back downstairs to fight the flames that were raging from the furnace.
"I was on the sofa, watching a John Grisham movie," recalled Skellington. "All of a sudden I heard a loud bang, like a filing cabinet falling over."
He got up to investigate the source of the noise, when suddenly the family cat, Dusty, appeared.
"The cat looked at me in a weird way and then headed down to the basement," said Skellington. "I got butterflies in my stomach."
Intuitively, Skellington followed the cat into the basement, and into the boiler room, where he found flames shooting out of the furnace. "The first thought I had was to get everyone out of the house," said Skellington.
Dangerously close to the fire was his sister Kaylyn, 17, whose bedroom is in the basement. With an uncanny calm, Skellington raced to Kaylyn's room and roused her from her sleep.
"I just yelled, 'Get up, Get out, there's a fire,'" said Skellington. "She thought I was kidding at first."
Once he was sure his sister was safe and out of the basement, Skellington ran upstairs to save his mother and 12-year-old sister, Samantha.
"I started banging on my mother's bedroom door," said Skellington. "I woke her up and told her to call 911."
His mother, Vicky, said she actually froze with panic for a moment. Luckily, Samantha reached for the telephone and put the call in to the fire department. Meanwhile, Skellington was on his way back to the basement to fight the fire. He grabbed a fire extinguisher and raced back down the steps.
"I wasn't even sure how to use the fire extinguisher," confessed Skellington. "I just sprayed the whole bottle onto the fire."
Vicky, who now had the peace of mind to take the telephone from Samantha, received instructions on how to shut off the burner from the 911 operator. She relayed them to Skellington and a few moments later, the flames were out. Skellington ran up the steps to join his family.
"Right before I walked out the door, I grabbed all my Miami Dolphins jerseys," laughed Skellington, a die-hard fan.
Nassau County police officers showed up just seconds later.
"If my son wasn't here, we would have all died," said a grateful Vicky. "I have no doubt about that. Dave is my hero, he saved our lives."
