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7-Year-Old Boy Hailed a Hero For Helping Dad Escape Garage Fire at OC Home

William Rimmer II was in his bedroom when he saw flashing lights coming out of the garage and ran to alert his father.

A 7-year-old boy is being hailed a hero for saving himself and his dad from a fire that engulfed the garage in their Orange County home.

William Rimmer II was in his bedroom just before 10:30 p.m. Saturday when he noticed what he described as flashing lights coming out of the garage and ran to alert his father.

"He woke me up, yelling, 'Fire, fire, fire!'" said William Rimmer, William II's father, who was asleep in the living room. 

Rimmer opened the garage door at his house in the 3000 block of Warren Lane to a fiery inferno. He grabbed his son, their dog, and ran out of the house, he said.

Firefighters arrived at the scene and were able to contain the blaze to the garage.

While at the home, firefighters recognized William II, who had attended a Fire Safety Day event at a Costa Mesa firehouse just a few weeks earlier.

"Here he was two or three weeks later--he found himself in a circumstance and he did was he was taught to do," said Costa Mesa fire Capt. Chris Coates. "He is wise beyond his years."

Thanks to William II, both he and his father, the only ones in the home, escaped the blaze uninjured.

"I'm very proud," Rimmer said. "My son really pulled through. He is definitely a hero."

The cause of the fire was still under investigation.

Coates encourages parents to have a fire safety plan in their homes and go over it with their children.

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