5-Year-Old Rescues Family Of 13 From House Fire: 'He's A Hero'

Aug 05, 2019 by apost team

A five-year-old boy saved more than a dozen lives after a fire broke out at a Chicago duplex.

Jayden Espinosa, a kindergartener, was sleeping over at his aunt's house with a few sisters and cousins. He woke up around 4 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep, so he plopped down in the living room to watch some cartoons.

It wasn't long before he noticed something strange in the air.

 "I smelled the smoke," he would later tell Fox 32, "and I got up and went outside."

There was a fire burning behind the garage, and it was quickly spreading to the rest of the duplex. Smoke was billowing in the air. Orange flames were licking at the walls. The building was equipped with a fire alarm, but it had failed to sound, and its occupants were all sleeping.

Fortunately, Jayden knew what to do.

"He woke me up and said, 'Uncle James, the house is on fire, the house is on fire. Get up, get up, get up,'" said the boy's uncle to WBBM.

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Jayden had a slightly cheekier explanation. When Fox 32 asked how he managed to be so quick-thinking in the face of danger, the five-year-old quipped, "Because I'm smart and brilliant."

His intelligence didn't stop there, however. Since the building was a duplex, Jayden knew that there was another family downstairs. He ran to the other occupants and woke them up as well.

Everyone managed to escape the building before the flames consumed it. According to local firefighters, it was a a devastating fire. It burned the duplex to the ground and took everything else with it, including clothes, picture albums and birth certificates.

The one silver lining was that everyone made it out alive. There were 13 total residents in the duplex, and every single one of them survived the blaze. They credit Jayden with their lives.

"He said that God has a plan," his mother recounted to reporters. "He saved everyone. If he hadn't got sent to his auntie's house Wednesday, then he would've never been there to get everybody out of the building."

Firefighters are still investigating the cause of the blaze. Meanwhile, city residents have set up fundraising efforts to help this heroic little boy and his family get back on their feet.

What do you think of Jayden's actions? Are you amazed by the resourcefulness of this five-year-old? Do you suddenly feel like double-checking your own smoke alarm? Sound off in the comments!