Bianca Rivera woke up smelling something like burnt plastic. She realized the house was on fire and got her 3 family members (and the family pets) out of the house safely.
What makes this story so notable is not just her heroics.. but the fact that she was the only one in the house who could have smelled the smoke. The others were all sick with COVID-19 and had lost their sense of smell, but the 17 year old didn't have the virus.
It's a hazard from COVID-19 we hadn't thought of-- if you've lost your sense of smell, you can't smell smoke.
Firefighters say it's yet another reason why you need to have working smoke detectors in your home.
(Photo: Getty Images)