After 17-year-old Lonsdale Boy Scout Grant Fitterer finished making an order during his shift at Rail 19 Bar and Grill Aug. 12, he searched the kitchen for the source of a subtle burning smell.
Realizing nothing in the kitchen was causing the odor, he decided to check out back, assuming perhaps he’d see a fire in the distance. What he instead found out back, and his quick, lifesaving actions, would earn him a new title at work and beyond: “hero.”
Alan Fitterer, Grant’s father and the principal at Tri-City United High School, said he couldn’t be more proud of his son.
“This is what a principal wants from every high-school teenager: to do what’s good, to do what you would hope somebody would do for me, somebody would do for you,” Alan said.
Grant knew that his coworker was prone to seizures. When they began experiencing sensory overload, or that “everything got super loud,” Grant had no issue with covering the kitchen while they took a short break in their car.
It was just about three minutes later that he noticed the burning odor, and began to investigate. Behind the restaurant, the source of the smell was clear.
His coworker was having a seizure in the driver’s seat, causing his leg muscles to uncontrollably press all the way down on the accelerator of his parked car for several minutes. The car was filled with dark gray smoke from the overheating vehicle.
Without much thought, Grant ran to the car to open all the doors and let the smoke escape. He then went back inside the restaurant and informed his manager who called 911.
“So I was looking through the backseat — that’s where most of the smoke was — wondering if there was like something like a lithium battery that overheated or something,” Grant recalled. “When I was back there, the first flame ignited from under the back tire well. So it was under the car, and the flame came up. Because I was in the backseat, that singed my hair. My face got warm, but it wasn’t any substantial burns.”
Without thinking
The manager relayed the information to the 911 operator that the car was now on fire. The restaurant dishwasher tried getting the coworker out of danger, but was unable.
“I grabbed him under his arms, and just pulled him out,” Grant said. “He was obviously not conscious — I don’t know what you’d call it — but he was not there. So I had to just drag him out. There was no help from him.”
Grant dragged the unconscious coworker away from the vehicle and around a corner, resting him against a wall and putting a barrier between him and the car. Within a matter of minutes, flames had completely engulfed the car, reaching up to 10 feet high, according to dash-camera footage from a responding Lonsdale Police Officer.
When asked what was going through his head at the time, Grant said “not much.”
“I just wanted to make sure everyone was safe,” he said. “It was just adrenaline and so much happening. Nothing, really. I wasn’t thinking ahead. I was thinking in the moment about what I could do now to prevent anything worse from happening.”
On arrival, the responding officer began to administer oxygen to the coworker, who was transported to the hospital in an ambulance before he regained consciousness. Members of the Lonsdale Fire Department hosed down the car and put out the flames.
Other than a spot of melted tar, the only damage to the restaurant is a slightly warped lip atop the dumpster. Grant said they got lucky.
“It could have been a lot worse, because the car was right next to our grease-dump bin with the fryer oil and stuff,” he said. “Our garbage cans were full of cardboard and garbage, so it could have spread to that, which it didn’t. It just melted one of the lids on our cans, which is not a big loss at all.”
Buzzcut season
After the commotion calmed down, Grant went back inside and got back to work. He said he got through the supper rush, and everything seemed normal.
Another one of Grant’s coworkers gave him a free buzzcut, since his hair was singed during the chaos. He received a message of gratitude from his coworker who he saved, and learned that they’re making a quick recovery.
The week immediately following the incident was quiet. Grant didn’t hear much about the situation until a story ran on a TV-news station. Then, the messages started pouring in.
“He’s been called a hero by many,” Alan said of his son. “You hear a lot of things about teens: they’re lazy, they’re this, they’re that, they just don’t do things for others. Well, Grant is proof that’s completely false. I would hope the average person, let alone teenager, would do what he did. Many people freeze; they just freeze up. Or many would grab this (their phone) and start filming it.”
As a boy scout working his way toward eagle scout, local scoutmaster Scott Pelava mentioned to Alan he was nominating Grant for the Lifesaving and Meritorious Action Award.
Lonsdale Mayor Tim Rud said Grant saved the day “like a Tom Cruise or Liam Neeson action movie.”
“Grant is a hero with his lifesaving actions,” Rud said. “Not too many 17 year olds would be cognizant of the circumstances while busy working. … His bravery has made our community very proud of him. He is an inspiration to others.”
The mayor invited Grant to a Lonsdale City Council meeting next month to be honored for his heroic act. Grant said the word “hero” took some getting used to.
“The first couple times it was not real, like I didn’t really feel like I did much,” Grant said. “But now that I thought about it more, yeah, those are the right words. It’s the best way to describe it, because I don’t know what else to call it.”
In addition to boy scouts and being a cook at Rail 19, Grant plays sports and volunteers around the community. He said he is considering going into the Army or the Marines, noting the common transition into firefighting or police work.
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