Firefighters Calm Toddler After Crash By Letting Her Do Their Nails

CLEARFIELD, Utah — Two North Davis Fire District firefighters went viral after letting a toddler do their nails in an effort to calm her down after a minor crash.

Two-year-old Braelyn thoroughly enjoys giving others a bit of a manicure now, thanks to the efforts of Captain Kevin Lloyd and Battalion Cheif Allen Hadley who wanted to help after the minor accident.

Braelyn’s mother Jocelyn Fernelius said she was rear-ended along state Route 193 in Davis County on Friday.

“She was screaming, freaking out,” Fernelius said of Braelyn. “I was scared and pregnant. Wasn’t sure if I was going to lose the baby or not.”

While Fernelius was being checked out by a paramedic, the two firefighters stepped in to help. Lloyd made the first approach.

“She had about six bottles of fingernail polish. Three in each hand, so I just started talking to her about that,” he said. “(She was) Still a little huffy, screamy, so I asked her if she wanted to paint my nails. She said, ‘yeah.'”

Lloyd said the change was instant.

“The second she started, she was done crying, and having fun,” he said. “Her reaction was priceless, just the way she was getting excited when we would change colors, almost like a little kid at Disneyland all of a sudden.”

By then, Hadley walked over and made an observation.

“The fingernail painting had already started, so we kind of teased each other,” Hadley said. “He had a gloved hand, and she was painting his gloved hand. So I kind of told him he needed to man up and take his glove off and actually let her do an actual fingernail.”

Lloyd conceded and both of them took turns, letting Braelyn express her artistic sense of fashion.

“She just kept switching back and forth,” Lloyd said. “When she was done with my hand, she would go to his hand, and then back to my hand, and then to his hand.”

By that time, Fernelius learned that she and her expected baby were fine. She then noticed what was going on between her daughter and the firefighters.

“She calmed right down, and I didn’t even notice at first what they were doing with her,” Fernelius said. “I just realized, ‘wait a second. She’s not crying anymore.’ So I looked back and saw them, so I took some pictures of her, painting their nails.”

The pictures were posted to the North Davis Fire District’s Facebook page and have since gone viral. Both Lloyd and Hadley said they’re somewhat surprised by the response.

“All across the country, firefighters, police officers, EMS, dispatch, they do stuff like this all the time,” Hadley said. “This is in our world, kind of common.”

Uncommon or not, Fernelius said they deserve the praise.

“I think they’re awesome,” she said. “It’s really cool that they would take their time to do that for a two-year-old.”

Her husband Brandon Fernelius wasn’t in the van at the time of the crash, but he agreed.

“It’s nice that we can have a story that shows people still care about each other, in a world where a lot of people feel like they don’t anymore,” he said.