Watch CBS News

12-Year-Old Boy Warned Residents Of Fire In Canaryville Home

dt.common.streams.StreamServer
Four homes on fire in Canaryville. (Photo/Chicago Fire Dept. Media Affairs)

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A boy from the Canaryville neighborhood on Chicago's South Side went door-to-door this morning, alerting neighbors before fire gutted four homes reports WBBM's Mike Krauser.

12-year-old Edwin Perez is being hailed as a hero. Fire broke out at the back section of his home on the 4400 block of South Union and he got his relatives and neighbors out safely as the fire quickly spread to four homes.

Boy Warned Residents Of Fire In Canaryville Home

"I heard a sound, a cracking sound from a window, then I saw through the window a big fire on a sofa. I got really scared so I got everybody up. I came running through all of the houses and knocking on people's doors really hard and they couldn't hear me so I just screamed, 'Hey wake up,' and they woke up and they said, 'What is happening,' and I said, 'There is a big fire.' They just came running and started crying," said Perez.

The Fire Department is calling Edwin a hero, which he says is, "Awesome."

Fire Chief Hoyel Marshall says it was a challenge fighting four fires at once.

"The fire escalated to the buildings in the north and the south and continued to spread, so deploying our troops rapidly was a problem due to the fact that we had a limited supply of water," said Marshall.

That was because they had so many lines in use. The cause is under investigation, there were no injuries.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.