Quick thinking of teen duo helps prevent car fire from spreading at Cape Coral High School

CAPE CORAL, Fla. —

Two Cape Coral High School juniors, Jacob Cainas and Cristos Maillakakis, noticed smoke coming from a car in the school's parking lot on Tuesday morning and took immediate action to prevent a potential disaster.

"Like, a lot of smoke is coming out from under the hood, and we're like, that's not normal," Cainas said.

Cainas and Maillakakis sensed something was wrong and noticed that others were not taking action.

"So then, so then we walk a little more, and other people are looking at it, and no one's doing anything, like no one's calling anyone or anything," Cainas said.

Maillakakis, unsure of what to do, turned to Cainas for guidance.

"And I look at Jake, I'm like, yo, what do we do? Because I didn't. I don't know what to do. I never been in that situation. But Jacob, growing up around the fire station, around fires, he initially told me, like, we got to call someone, we're going to call 911," Maillakakis said.

Cainas, whose father is a Cape Coral firefighter, knew the importance of quick action in such situations. A parking lot is one of the worst places for a car fire to break out due to the proximity of vehicles. Without immediate intervention, a fire can spread rapidly.

Cape Coral firefighters arrived swiftly and managed to control the fire before it could spread. Andrea Schuch from the Cape Coral Fire Department emphasized the urgency of the situation.

"A fire can double in size every 30 seconds, so the faster you can get the firefighters responding. When they arrive, the fire hopefully has not grown to be out of control," Schuch said.

For their quick thinking and heroic actions, both teens were awarded a Community Recognition Coin.

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