An 8-year-old boy with Down syndrome is being hailed as a hero after he rescued his 14-year-old sibling from a raging fire that destroyed their Colorado home Sunday.
Grayson was home alone with his sister Ava Grace when the vicious blaze erupted around noon, with thick black smoke quickly engulfing their family residence in Centennial.
With their parents just a few miles down the road, Grayson called out to his sister, who was a floor below, to get out of the burning house. She then called the police and her mother as Grayson escaped out a side door and she jumped out of a window.
“He was yelling Ava, Ava! And kept yelling Ava, Ava,” the kids’ mother, Renee Unruh, told KCNC-TV, during an emotional interview.
“He kind of saved her life. He’s our hero.”
Police responded to the blaze and heard the children screaming and crying for help behind a wooden fence in their backyard, according to dramatic bodycam footage released by the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.
Unable to reach the terrified children, the deputies jumped into a neighbors yard and tore a hole through the fence with their bare hands before carrying the kids, who were both barefoot and wearing shorts and a t-shirt, to safety in the piercing snow.
“My room is on fire,” Grayson screamed as he was carried away from the burning home on South Gibraltar Lane, according to the footage. “Help me.”
His sister, while crying, thanked the deputies following the harrowing rescue.
“Anywhere there was a hole in the house, there was smoking coming out of it,” Deputy Ryan McConnell said in a video posted to social media.
“As I got near the house, I heard the kids screaming. My first thought was they were still inside. Obviously, they were terrified, had no idea what was going on. It was a good feeling getting them out of there, especially knowing they were so young.”
McConnell added the department was grateful nobody else was in the house as the menacing smoke was pouring out of the doors and vents prevented them from getting inside.
Unruh said she was visiting her mother, who was also victimized by a house fire a year prior, when she received the dreaded phone call from her daughter and saw the smoke in the sky.
She and her husband raced back to their charred home and were thankful and relieved to see their children alive.
“I couldn’t let them go. I don’t ever want to be apart from them.” she said, according to KCNC-TV.
“He (Grayson) does brighten everyone’s day and he obviously can save lives.”
The Red Cross came to the family’s aid following the fire and got them temporary lodging, the outlet reported, with community members also offering their help.
Officials said smoke could be seen for miles as firefighters spent an hour extinguishing the blaze.
Two deputies suffered smoke inhalation and were treated at the scene by paramedics, with two other children also treated, according to South Metro Fire Rescue.
“One SMFR firefighter was treated on-site and transported to a local hospital for further evaluation,” the department said in a statement on Facebook.
“Sadly one dog and one cat did not survive the fire while 4 cats remain unaccounted for.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.