The Woohoo! Report

By Rucks Russell & Rosa Flores / 11 News

HOUSTON—The Houston Fire Department plans to honor a local family of heroes who risked their lives to save their neighbors from a fire.

The Preciado family was holding a garage sale – just as they do every day – at their home on the corner of Crosstimbers and Appleton Wednesday afternoon when they heard screams from down the street.

They noticed smoke coming from a nearby home, and went running toward the flames.

When they got there, the family found a frantic Josephina Vega.

Vega was screaming for help after realizing her 1-year-old son Daniel was trapped inside her burning home.

In Spanish, Vega told us she cried out for an angel. Just so happened, a whole family of angels heard her cries.

“She couldn’t breath and she was trying to run for help,” said 16-year-old Sergio Preciado Jr. “And she just kept screaming ‘My kid, my kid.’”

“All we could do is break in the window,” said Sergio Preciado Sr. in Spanish. “We couldn’t find anything to break it with, so my son put his foot in the window.”

The father and son ran inside, with Josephina right behind them.

There wasn’t much time to act.

Sergio Jr. found little Daniel in his crib and handed him through the broken window to his (Sergio’s) mother.

In the chaos, Josephina Vega fainted in her living room and both father and son had to pull her to safety.

Vega and her son are expected to make a full recovery.

Sergio Jr. needed stitches for the gash he got when he put his foot through the window.

Still, Sergio Sr. said they just did a good deed, nothing special.

But it was special in the eyes of others.

“You did a really good thing,” said an HFD fire captain. “Just keep it up.”

HFD said they plan to nominate the entire Preciado family for their neighborhood hero award.

Investigators believe the fire began on a stove, shot into the rafters and spread into the next room where the baby was sleeping.

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