5-Year-Old Boy Saves 13 Lives When He Warns Entire Building of House Fire

By Laura Stewart July 30, 2019 at 3:03pm

A 5-year-old boy in Chicago kept his cool during a very dangerous situation on Saturday when a fire broke out in a building with 13 people sleeping inside. If not for him, the outcome could have been much worse.

Jayden Espinosa is being called a hero for his actions after waking up to the smell of smoke in the early hours of the morning.

“I smelled the smoke and I got up and went outside,” he told WFLD.

“Auntie’s house was burning,” he added. “I was scared!”

The fire broke out around 4 a.m and everyone in the house was sleeping when Jayden hurried to wake his family up. The boy quickly ran to tell his aunt, along with everyone else in the house, that they needed to escape.

“He said ‘auntie, auntie, there’s a fire. We need to get out,’ his aunt, Nicole Peeples, told WMAQ-TV.

“I never smelled any smoke and the fire alarms never went off,” she added. “I’m so glad he was there.”

But the 5-year-old hero didn’t stop after warning his family.

Knowing that his aunt’s home was a duplex, Jayden raced down the stairs to warn sleeping neighbors of the fire. All 13 people in the homes made it to safety.

“He came, he said, ‘You’ve got to get out, the house is on fire.’ He saved everybody,” resident Sanavia Connely said. “Without him, I don’t think we would have made it.”

Jayden’s mom, Tracey Espinosa, told WFLD that her son credited God with saving their lives.

FIRE HERO: Jayden Espinosa, 5, was the first person in his building to notice the smoke in his burning building this morning. Firefighters credit him with saving the lives of 13 people. Read more: https://t.co/WfFTW8l8mE via @Dakarai_Turner pic.twitter.com/kCtiQ0Bmgs

— FOX 32 News (@fox32news) July 28, 2019

“[Jayden] said that God has a plan,” she said. “Everything will be okay. 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.”

“What he did was courageous. I would hope that anyone would do the same thing,” Kashmir Espinosa, Jayden’s father, said to WMAQ-TV.

When asked how he knew exactly what to do in the dangerous situation, Jayden confidently replied, “Because I’m smart and brilliant.”

The kindergartner now says he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up.

“I got everyone out of that house because I was trying to save them,” he said.

Jayden’s family has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help them begin again after the fire left them with significant losses. However, thanks to one very brave 5-year-old, they still have one another.

“Without Jayden, I don’t think we would have survived,” Peeples said.

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