DETROIT – A Detroit family has a lot to figure out Tuesday after a fire destroyed their home, leaving them with just the clothes they were wearing when they ran outside.
But they're grateful to be alive, and that's thanks to a 14-year-old boy.
"I went to sleep," homeowner Ladora Hill said. "When I woke up, the whole house was on fire. I sleep so hard, entirely too hard. He got me up."
She's happy to tell her story because of William Hopes, the 14-year-old hero who saved the family.
"That was my first instinct -- to just get them," William said.
In the middle of the night, a fire quickly started consuming their house on Alpine Street, near Joy Road and Livernois Avenue.
The family has had furnace trouble, so Hill said she left a stove burner on for heat.
William is the reason his mother, 4-year-old sister and 2-year-old brother are alive.
"I was in the back, watching TV," William said. "I looked in the kitchen and the house is on fire."
"He just screamed, 'Wake up, wake up,'" Hill said. "We just ran out."
Hours later, every corner of the home was damaged or destroyed. But Hill said it could have been much worse.
"I was scared," William said. "I thought the house was going to blow up."
"He's my littler hero," Hill said. "If it wasn't for him, we would have been dead. Thank God my baby saved us."
Hill said she was in the process of buying the home from the Detroit Land Bank. She didn't have any insurance.
The American Red Cross will be helping the family get back on their feet.