9-year-old boy saves siblings from house fire in Santa Fe

SANTA FE, N.M. — A Santa Fe family is now without a home after it burned down this weekend, but they say they would have lost so much more if it wasn’t for their 9-year-old son jumping into action. 

“If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be here,” Anna Jaramillo said while holding her 9-year-old grandson, Asaya Chaves. 

Jaramillo says Asaya is her hero and saved multiple lives Saturday afternoon when he ran back into their burning house to get his siblings. 

On Monday, Asaya Chaves walks through his front yard, pointing out the rooms of what used to be his home. 

“This was the living room, that is where JJ was playing,” Asaya said holding his 2-year-old brother’s hand. “If you see back there, that back room, that’s my room. That is where I first smelled the smoke.” 

Asaya explained he knew exactly what to do in the situation because of a lesson he learned at school. 

“One day firefighters came, and they told us what to do and stuff like that, and the firefighters said if you smell smoke get out the house. I smelt that exact same smoke, so I told my grandma let’s get out there it’s a fire,” Asaya said. 

Asaya’s grandma, Anna Jaramillo, was the only adult home at the time with her four grandkids. 

“It was hard, but Asaya was the one that had it, he did, he took the kids out, the youngest ones and said ‘Grandma get out hurry,’ and we got Santi out,” Jaramillo explained. 

But his 2-year-old brother, JJ, and 7-month-old sister, Armani, were still inside. So, Asaya ran back into the burning house before the firefighters arrived on scene. 

“I got Armani out because she is little, and then I got JJ out, and after I got out everything started blowing up! Boom, boom, boom because the fire got to my grandma’s oxygen tanks and the second I got out of there everything started blowing up,” said Asaya.  

The 9-year-old said it was like a scene from an action movie.

“When the firefighters came up, they seen me coming out with JJ, and after I came out they started running all the hoses and running around the house,” Asaya said.

“They saw him bringing the babies out, and they asked him ‘how did you know to do that?’ And he told them from school, and they told him you are a little hero,” Jaramillo said with tears of pride in her eyes. 

The family moved into the house only a month ago, but now all that is left is charred wood and burnt toys scattered through the yard. 

“It’s hard we have nothing left, but you know what that’s OK, we have each other, we are still here, we didn’t lose anybody. We can always replace everything else, but you can’t replace a life, so I’m really, really thankful for being here,” Jaramillo said wiping tears from her eyes. “I’m thankful for my grandson.” 

Jaramillo says next week they were going to celebrate her daughter’s and granddaughter’s birthdays with a BBQ in the yard of their new house, but now they are working on a new plan.

If you would like to donate to the family, they have set up a Spotfund account.