The Calen family remembers everything about Oct. 30, 2011—from what they ate, to the Broadway show they saw (Rain, because their son Justin liked the Beatles") to what they watched on TV when they got home...to how they escaped their house when they realized it had suddenly been engulfed in flames. 

Or, that's to say, they all remember it well, but they all remember it a little bit differently—

Except Justin, their then-8-year-old son, who was—as his father described it—entirely "out cold" after such a long day in New York City.

Justin was sleeping in the room directly above the driveway—where the flames seemingly sprouted spontaneously from their parked SUV—and quickly spread from the car, to the downstairs windows to the second floor.

"I knew Justin was still sleeping, so I didn't even think about it," said now-12-year-old Altaira, who lives with her family in Dobbs Ferry. She ran from the guest room, where she was watching TV, and tried unsuccessfully to shake her brother awake.

"I wasn't really sure what was going on, but I heard my dad yelling, 'Get out' from the bottom of the stairs," Altaira recalled. "But I couldn't wake my brother up, so I pulled him out of bed and led him down the stairs."

Justin said he doesn't remember anything until he was already outside. He was the only one in the family wearing socks. Altaira and her mom Carole were barefooted and freezing. It was Altaira, also, who remembered their puppy, Astro, who was in his crate in the back of the house. 

Altaira and Justin's father Brian Calen went back inside and saved the dog; he was also able to save two portraits painted of his children when they were young and a handful of sentimental pieces from the mantle before the fire fighters came and made him stay outside...and wait.

This Friday, Altaira—a 7th grader at Briarcliff Middle School, where her mom teaches—will earn a prestigious "Bronze Cross of Honor Life Saving Award," from the Girls Scouts of America Council. Only about 10 girls nationwide receive the award annually. It's the highest level of life-saving award the organization gives out, reserved only for members who risk their own lives to save someone else's. The ceremony will take place in the Springhurst Elementary School cafeteria from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

"Altaira has always been active with the Girl Scouts—not just doing it socially like some kids—but really putting everything into earning badges, learning life skills and being in the outdoors," her mom said, as she showed off her daughter's impressive array of badges—all have which have been replaced and re-sewn onto her Brownie and Girl Scout vests since the fire destroyed the originals.

In the days that followed, the Calen family received an outpouring of generosity from their community—from clothing from neighbors, to donations from Justin's karate school and the Sacred Heart Church congregation. 

Drive past 81 Price St. now, and it's impossible to believe the house you'll see is the same one from which Brian Calen spent months extracting barely-salvageable photographs of his children from the snowy muck that accumulated on the floor; the photos had originally been in the attic.

"The fire cut through the phone lines, so the fire department didn't get alerted to it until a neighbor called," Brian said. He was too busy trying to make sure everyone was out of the house to call. 

As they describe that night, all three Calens who witnessed the blaze wave their arms wildly—

"The entire three-pane window shattered and there was glass all over the floor," Brian said.

"I remember my brother crying and my mom yelling," Altaira said. On her application for the Bronze Award it says, "While watching the house burn, rescuer [Altaira] remained calm and mature. Mother was screaming; Justin was crying." 

Now comfortable in her new-old house, Altaira's precocious modesty and maturity still shine through.

"I used to have nightmares about it; I don't anymore," she said. "We used to be known as 'The family with the fire.'"

For a fleeting moment after they realized how badly damaged their house was, Carole Calen said she thought about moving up to Briarcliff Manor, closer to where she works.

"But then I remembered what the community did for us here; they let us stay with them, gave us the clothes off their backs," she added.

The house was rebuilt over six months by R & N Construction Corporation. In the interim, the Calens stayed first with Carole's sister, then at the Marriot in Tarrytown and finally rented a home on Dobbs Ferry Road.

"We were just so lucky," Brian said, as he flipped through the album of photographs he salvaged by a specialist who soaked them in his bath tub. "The house went up in a matter of minutes—seconds. Every moment counted. That's why it's so important that Altaira went back for Justin...I don't know what would have happened otherwise."

See photos of the house just after the fire here on Patch. 

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