By NBC News staff
An Oregon teen is being hailed a hero after he rescued an 8-year-old boy from a fire that broke out in his home Monday, KATU.com reported.
Marcos Ugarte, 14, used a ladder to climb to a second-floor window of the burning Troutdale, Ore., home where a family of five lived. Alex Ma had tried unsuccessfully to get upstairs to rescue his son, Cody, 8, but he couldn't reach him through the thick smoke, ABC News reported.
Cody's parents, his grandmother Yim and brother Nathan had made it out safely, but Cody had locked himself in the room, the report said.
"When I arrived at the door of our neighbor's house, he [Alex Ma] was stumbling down the stairs because he had been completely engulfed in flames," Marcos' father, Eduardo Ugarte, told KATU. "He had soot coming out of his nose and his mouth, he had just ingested so much of it."
Marcos grabbed a ladder and climbed to the second floor, punching out the screen and grabbing the boy, according to KATU.
"I took the ladder, and I propped it up on the window, and I crawled up the window and punched the screen out ... and grabbed [the boy] and carried him down the ladder," the teenager told KATU soon after the rescue.
"I just told him to go feet first, and then he walked down the ladder, but I had my arm around him so he was secure," Marcos added. "He was scared at first and he didn't know if he should come out, and I was like, 'It's OK, come on, come on. I got you.' So he came out and he just walked down."
Investigators believe the fire was started by accident, KATU reported. It began inside Cody's room after 10 p.m. and spread to the rest of the house. According to KATU, Cody ran into another room and locked himself in, keeping the door shut and the smoke out.
"I may never forget their names because they're my heroes. They're my son's heroes forever," Alex Ma told KATU.
Marcos told KATU he received many congratulations at school, and the Gresham Fire Department also plans to honor him this year.
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