Washington - After a nine-year-old boy saved six relatives in a nighttime fire in the family's mobile home, money started pouring in for his funeral, reaching $17 564 by Wednesday.
The boy, Tyler Doohan, was called a hero by firefighters after the early Monday morning fire raged through the trailer park home in Penfield, New York.
“He saved six people. They all would have died if he hadn't woken up,” Chris Ebmeyer, chief of the volunteer fire company, was quoted as saying by MSNBC on Wednesday.
Tyler was awakened by the fire and raced to other family members - four adults and two children aged 4 and 6 - to rouse them out of the inferno.
Then he ran back in, trying to save his 57-year-old grandfather.
Their bodies were found near each other. Tyler's uncle also died in the fire.
Nine people had been living in the 4m-by-18m trailer, where Tyler had been allowed to spend the night because the next day was a school holiday, his mother, Crystal Vrooman, said.
“I'm so thankful that he was with people he loved,” Tyler's mother, Crystal Vrooman, told CNN between sobs.
“He didn't cross alone. I just want him back.”
The photo on the Youcaring.com fundraising site shows a grinning Tyler wearing face paint and what appears to be a Halloween costume.
Some news reports gave Tyler's age as 8, but his school said he was 9.
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