A Fort Worth teenager is being called a hero for how she reacted in an emergency.
As her family’s home burned around her, America Esparza managed to get her four siblings out of harm’s way just in the knick of time.
The 14-year-old was babysitting while her mom went to the grocery store for dinner.
“As soon as I walked into the kitchen, Mitchell, the 9-year-old, ran in there yelling ‘Call 911, there's a fire!’” America explained.
With flames shooting through the roof, anyone else may have panicked. But not America.
Instead, she told her brothers, Mitchell, 6-year-old Adrian and 3-year-old Ben to run. She said she called 911 then grabbed Carolyn, her 6-month-old sister, and rushed outside.
Almost everything inside was destroyed.
But everyone -- all five siblings – made it out unharmed.
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“She got them all out,” said America’s mother Cynthia. “I don't even know if gratitude or thankfulness is even appropriate because it’s so much more than that. I mean, they knew what to do and they got out,” she continued.
The family is staying with friends.
Coming back to their house a week later isn't easy, but it taught America a lesson.
“It taught me that everything can be taken away in just a second and it could never be brought back and so you just have to deal and fight through the fact that you lost everything,” she said.
America says her training in the Girl Scouts and with the Red Cross helped her react the way she did.
The family dog of 12 years, two cats and their fish died in the fire.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
