Ashne's heroic act has kept this close knit family together. Five-year-old Ashne, with her family from left, sister Ryanna, mother Angeline, baby sister Cierra (partly hidden), father Ryan and brother Raul.

by MARIA BRADSHAW

FIVE-YEAR-OLD ASHNE MARSHALL is her family's little heroine.

Last March, she bravely pulled her younger brother from a burning bed and rescued her baby sister Ryanna from another room before escaping with them unscathed from a fire that destroyed her family's home in Rock Hall, St Philip.

Last week the Barbados Fire Service awarded Ashne for her bravery by presenting her with a plaque and a gift certificate.

But this act of sisterly love is one which her parents say she exhibits every day.

Sitting in the living room of the house they are now renting at Cave Hill, St Michael, mother Angeline Skeete and father Ryan Marshall told WEEKEND NATION they will never forget that fateful night on March 27, 2005.

Angeline was at home with her three children – Ashne, who was four at the time, Raul, three, and six-month-old Ryanna.

"The candles had gone right down so I decided to go over to my Aunty's house to tell her father to get some more candles. The other children were sleeping so I asked Ashne if she wanted to go with me, but she said: 'No mummy, I will stay with Raul and Ryanna', so I told her to stand by the front door and watch me.

Angeline now knows that her daughter's decision to stay back and watch the other kids was what saved their lives.

"While I was walking up the road I looked back and realised that she was not at the door, so I thought she had just gone back inside. I got to my aunt's house and I started to tell Ryan that we wanted candles when he shouted out, 'O God! the house'. When I looked back the house was burning, and we ran back down the road."

Ryan, the children's father, said by the time they got to the house Ashne was standing at the front door holding her baby sister in one arm and leading Raul with the other.

Relieved, he quickly snatched all of them from the doorway, since by that time, the entire house was on fire.

But only Ashne could tell the story of what happened inside the house.

Vividly, she recalled that shortly after her mother left home the candle fell onto the bed where Raul was sleeping. She saw the bed explode in flames, but without a second thought, she moved instinctively to the bedrooms to rescue Raul and her baby sister.

"I was in the front house and the candle blow down on the bed. I went into the bedroom and take up Ryanna, and then I went for Raul. I try to wake him up, but he wouldn't get up so I pull him by his shirt and dragged him off the bed," Ashne explained, while holding onto Raul's shirt as she demonstrated how she saved him from the inferno.

Asked if she was afraid, the wide-eyed little girl innocently replied: "No."

Nursing her baby girl Cierra, Angeline glances tenderly at Ashne and states: "She is a very fearless child."

"Ashne is a very bold little girl. She is very fearless. That night I broke down, but Ashne did not even cry. She is very close to her sister and brother. If Raul does things he is not supposed to do she would speak to him, and, sometimes even lash him."

Laughing, Angeline said that Ashne still talks about the fire up to this day.

"Everybody knows Ashne because she still talks about the fire. She was supposed to receive the award on Heroes Day, and everytime I take her into town she would look at the pictures of the heroes on the wall and ask me if her picture would be up there too."

For Ashne, a student of Arthur Smith Primary, this selfless act of bravery was one that came naturally.

"I love my brother and sister," she softly declared.

As the family now struggles to pick back up the pieces of their lives, they lamented that while they received some assistance, it has been hard not having a home to call their own.

But at least they have each other – thanks to Ashne.

* mariabradshaw@ nationnews.com