Family who have lost their sense of smell due to COVID-19 narrowly escape housefire
The dangers of COVID-19 are not restricted to only health and medical issues, but can also lead to all types of large scale destruction.
Bianca Rivera, a 17-year-old from Texas, does not consider herself a hero.
I would just do whatever anyone else would do for their own family I just wanted to get everyone else safe and alive. That’s all I wanted was to keep everyone alive.
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Although many would say she definitely was heroic when she rescued her family from their burning home.
At 3am, the local Waco Fire Department had arrived on the scene and tried to do what they could, but the house was engulfed in flames.
STRUCTURE FIRE - 2200 Block of Joey Dr. @WacoTXFire units arriving with a one-story house heavily involved in fire. Exposures threatened.
— Waco Fire Department (@WacoTXFire) January 15, 2021
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The department also later said that the family was lucky to be alive at all.
According to KWTX, Bianca told them that she had woken up smelling burnt plastic around 2am. She quickly realised what was happening and was on full alert.
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As she made her way out of her room and down the hallway. She was struggling to get through because of the massive amounts of smoke.
She managed to wake up the rest of her family, get them safely through the backdoor, and even saved their four dogs.
3 with COVID-19 owe lives to girl, 17, who smelled smoke from early-morning fire - This family is lucky to be alive. @WacoTXFire would like to remind everyone to make sure you have working smoke alarms in your home. #SmokeAlarms https://t.co/CGpnow1Le4
— Waco Fire Department (@WacoTXFire) January 16, 2021
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Everyone escaped completely unscathed, but the reason for them not realising the house was on fire was because the others have had COVID-19 and lost their sense of smell.
They had no idea the house was burning and if it wasn't for Bianca, they might never have made it.
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The loss of smell, also known as anosmia, is one of the most common symptoms of coronavirus and can last for quite a while if a person is/was COVID-19 positive.
Clearly, those that are infected with the virus have even more to look out for and should be even more careful.
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Main image courtesy of iStock