IF NOT FOR HIM

5-Year-Old Chicago Boy Dubbed a Hero After Saving 13 in House Fire

The boy woke up to smoke and flames around 4 a.m. and quickly alerted everyone inside to the dangerous blaze.

A 5-year-old Chicago boy is being hailed as a hero after saving 13 people from an early-morning house fire on Saturday. Jayden Espinosa woke up to smoke shortly before 4 a.m. and got up to investigate the situation before alerting others to the blaze. “I just walked in there and seen the flames in there in the kitchen. It made my bones hurt,” he was quoted as telling NBC News Chicago. Espinoza rushed throughout the house to wake up the other residents so they could get out safely. “Without Jayden, I don’t think we would have survived,” his aunt, Nicole Peeples, said, adding that the fire alarms never went off. Several people were displaced by the fire, but no one was injured. The cause of the blaze is still under investigation.