Toddler just learning to speak saves his sleeping family with one word: ‘Fire!’

Aiden may be just 3 years old, but he was old enough to know something was wrong recently at his family’s home.

When the toddler woke up in his grandparents’ room on Wednesday, the smell of smoke hung in the air. His grandparents had already gone to work, and his parents were sleeping in another room.

“He was alone and must have noticed that something wasn’t right,” Aiden’s grandfather, Abel Sanchez, 57, said.

The toddler walked to his parents’ room and started to pull on his mother’s blankets. She didn’t immediately wake up, Sanchez said. He kept tugging on her blankets to get her attention and would not stop.

Aiden is learning more words every day, his grandfather said. Sanchez and his family live in El Sereno in Los Angeles down the street from a fire station on North Eastern Avenue. His grandson regularly sees firetrucks pass by on the street with their blaring sirens.

The home on 2230 N Eastern Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90032. Firefighters say that the quick thinking of a toddler allowed his family to escape from their home when it caught on fire in El Sereno on Wednesday. Crews say that a toddler living in the home woke his parents up after he “smelled something funny,” which allowed everyone to rush from the home safely before the flames became to intense.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

So, on Wednesday morning as the house filled with smoke, the boy shouted one of the few words he knows, “Fire! Fire!”

That did the trick, waking up his parents and his 4-month-old baby sister. The family fled as smoke poured out of the home, Sanchez said.

“By that time, the house was already black with smoke,” Sanchez said. “The fire must have just started when he got out of bed and went over to wake up his mom.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department, and 36 firefighters were able to put out the blaze in 19 minutes.

Although the family are not able to live in the home due to the smoke damage, Sanchez credits his grandson with saving the house.

“He’s our family hero,” Sanchez said.