Aiden may be just three years old, but he was old enough to find out that something was wrong at his family’s home recently.
When the toddler woke up in his grandparents’ room on Wednesday, the smell of smoke was hanging in the air. His grandparents were already at work, and his parents were sleeping in another room.
“He must have realized that something was wrong on his own,” said Aiden’s grandfather Abel Sanchez, 57.
The toddler walked to his parents’ room and began pulling his mother’s blanket. She didn’t wake up immediately, Sanchez said. He continued to pull her blanket to get her attention and didn’t stop.
Aiden learns more words every day, his grandfather said. Sanchez and his family live in El Sereno, Los Angeles, down the street from the Northeastern Avenue fire station. His grandson regularly watches fire trucks pass the streets in fierce sirens.
The 2230 N Eastern Avenue home in Los Angeles, California, 90032, Los Angeles, firefighters say the quick thinking of toddlers allows families to escape from their homes when they set fires in El Sereno on Wednesday. The crew says the toddler who lives in the house “smells funny” awakened their parents.
(Robert Gautier/Los Angeles Times)
So, on Wednesday morning, when the house was filled with smoke, the boy cried out one of the few words he knew: “Fire! Fire!”
It did the trick and woke up his parents and his 4 month old baby sister. Sanchez said the family escaped when smoke flowed out of the house.
“By then, the house was already black with smoke,” Sanchez said. “The fire must have started when he got out of bed and went to wake his mother up.”
The cause of the fire was under investigation, and 36 firefighters were able to put out the flames in 19 minutes, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.
The family is unable to live in the house due to damage from the smoke, but Sanchez believes his grandson saved the house.
“He’s a hero in our family,” Sanchez said.
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