Siri has been credited with saving yet another person’s life. Christopher Beaucher of Wilmot, New Hampshire, says that if it weren’t for the AI-powered virtual assistant, he may not have lived to tell the tale of how he escaped an exploding house.
Over the weekend, Beaucher was checking on his mother’s vacant cottage, which was up for sale. When he saw something suspicious, he entered the residence to make sure nothing was amiss. This, however, turned out to be a near fatal mistake — as soon as he turned on the light, the entire house became engulfed in flames.
“The whole place caught fire,” Beaucher told local news station WMUR. “Part of it collapsed while I was in it during the initial explosion, so I couldn’t really tell where I was.”
While he was lucky enough to escape the premises and make it to his Land Rover where his cellphone sat, he was unable to dial any numbers due to the severe burns on his hands and fingers. So he decided to go with his next best option — asking Siri to do it for him.
“I had the presence of mind to use Siri to at least call 911,” Beaucher said. And luckily, Siri obliged, dialing 911 on Beaucher’s behalf. “I was going into shock, too, so having Siri to dial 911 for me was critical,” he added.
Emergency responders reacted quickly to the call, and reached Beaucher in time to both put out the fire and transport him to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is now recovering. “You know, I’m going to be OK after all of this. It’s just going to take a while,” he said.
While authorities are still investigating the cause of the explosion, you can help Beaucher in his recovery by donating to a GoFundMe page that his friends have created to account for the cost of treatment.
