Teenage boy honored for rescuing family, pets from Commerce City fire

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – Fifteen-year-old Louie Ramirez was honored as a hero Tuesday for his quick thinking after his home went up in flames in January.

“I left for work and my brother called me not even five minutes later, and said, ‘You better get back home, the house is on fire,’” said Ramirez’s mother, Catherina Vigil.

She rushed back to her home in Commerce City that day in early January to find smoke billowing from inside.

The living room was destroyed, but thankfully, the four people and three dogs inside were safe. But that might not have been the case had it not been for her son.

“I had so much adrenaline,” Ramirez recounted Tuesday. “I threw out my back because I had all three of the dogs. I had the big dog on my shoulder and the two little dogs in my arm.”

Ramirez says he heard a big boom, saw the TV flickering, and said he knew it was an electrical surge. He ran to the back of his house to turn off the breakers, then went to the basement, where his aunt and her two young children were.

“I knocked on the door and said, ‘Hey, it’s an emergency! Get out; there’s a fire,’” he said.

An Adams County South Fire District spokesperson says if Ramirez didn’t jump into action when he did, there would have likely been more damage and possibly lives lost in the fire.

“Life can change in an instant, you know?” Vigil said. “Make your kids fire ready and safety ready.”

But Ramirez says it wasn’t a big deal.

“I was talking to my mom about it earlier. I didn’t see what was such a big deal about that I just turned off the breakers,” he said.

A GoFundMe account was set up to help Louie replace his laptop which was damaged in the fire.