BAKERSFIELD, Calif. --
A thirteen-year-old boy is credited with saving the life of an elderly woman before her home went up in flames.
The fire occurred Tuesday morning in central Bakersfield at a home on 10th Street.
When the house caught fire, Jessie Grajeda and his older sister, Brenda, ran inside to help the woman escape the blaze.
The woman was just getting in the shower when the blaze broke out.
The Brenda Grajeda told ABC23 that she and her brother saw the woman struggling to escape and helped her to get out. "I'm not going to let her stay in there and die," the Grajeda said.
Firefighters said if it took one more minute the woman may have been overcome by smoke.
Her husband was at the grocery store with a neighbor when the fire occurred.
Although fire crews knocked the flames down quickly, the woman and her husband, both in their 80s, are now homeless.
Neither the names of the husband and wife have been released. Brenda and Jessie Grajeda live near the home.
There is no word on the cause, though the fire did $175,000 in damage.
