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Brothers John, 10, and Aaron Miller, 12, helped their family get out of their burning house safely. The boys learned fire safety from the Boy Scouts.

It was the day after Thanksgiving last year. The Miller house was full of people and everyone was still full of Thanksgiving dinner.

Jeannie Miller and her two sons, Aaron and John, had just settled down to watch movies for the evening. Grandma, an aunt and her kids were getting ready for bed.

Then somebody smelled smoke.

“I tried to go downstairs and couldn’t get out the door, it was so smoke-filled,” Ms. Miller said.

The downstairs doorway was the only way out of the duplex. But fire and smoke blocked the way.

Aaron and John knew what to do. The two boys had just finished a fire safety course in their Boy Scout troop. They broke out an upstairs window and got a ladder to get everyone down to safety.

“(Aaron) and his younger brother busted out a window and got everybody out on the roof,” Ms. Miller said. “The roof wasn’t that far off the ground, so they jumped off, got the ladder and then went knocking door to door for somebody to get help.”

“It’s not just my life they saved,” Ms. Miller added. “They saved their grandmother, my older sister ... There were seven children in the house counting them.”

The family lost everything in the fire. Not only did they lose furniture and every piece of clothing that wasn’t on their backs, but five iguanas, two rabbits, two dogs and three cats.

“I was afraid. I just wanted to get out and find a safe way to get down and help my grandma,” said 12-year-old Aaron Miller.

Now the boy’s stepfather, John Merriott, has become a scoutmaster. The grandmother and aunt whom the boys saved from the fire also have decided to become Cub Scout den leaders.

“I grew up being a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout, and after they told me the story, I decided to become their scout leader and go ahead and give back what I got out of it,” Mr. Merriott said.

Ten-year-old John Miller said he’s happy with all the things he learns in scouting. He didn’t know it would teach him how to save lives.

“Me and my brother, we know what to do sometimes and sometimes we don’t,” he said.

The local Boy Scouts of America are a United Way agency.

Alonzo Weston can be reached

at alonzow@npgco.com.