Santa Ana father rescues his family from burning home overnight – NBC Los Angeles

A Santa Ana father was hailed as a hero after he rescued his family and their roommate from a burning home, fire officials said Friday.

Video from the Orange County Fire Authority showed the two-story home on South Linda Way engulfed in flames.

“Open the window, son! Jump!” a father shouted in Spanish as he pounded on the window of his sleeping son, with fire racing through their home.

Five people are alive today thanks to the heroic actions of a 67-year-old man at his home on South Linda Way in @CityofSantaAna. pic.twitter.com/lNWmoJQYLa

— OCFA (@OCFireAuthority) December 5, 2025

A security camera from across the street also captured the sound of the 67-year-old father of two, urging his 11-year-old son to open the window in Spanish.

“Come out this way, son,” he said in the video in Spanish, sounding remarkably calm while flames surrounded the first floor of his home. 

Investigators said the fire may have started on the first floor of the home at around 1:30 a.m. Friday.

Firefighters said the father, his wife and their two sons, as well as an elderly woman who lived with them, were trapped upstairs. 

“The husband opened the door and felt the heat and the smoke coming up through the house,” Capt. Sean Doran of the Orange County Fire Authority described. “He went out the bedroom window onto a back patio – about 9 feet tall – jumped off that patio onto the grass.”

Then the patriarch, Doran said, grabbed a ladder and put it back onto the patio so his wife could escape safely without having to jump.

Next. the father went one by one to each bedroom window with the ladder and got everyone out safely. 

The last person to escape, the older son, called 911 to seek help.

“To save his family the way he did, that’s just instinctual,” said Frank Ramirez, a neighbor.

Those who live in the area said the father’s name is Tony, a hardworking landscaper who takes care of his family and the neighborhood. 

“(Tony has) owned this place for 30 plus years, and for that to happen to him and his family, it’s pretty heartbreaking,” said Yancey Barboza, another neighbor.

Ramirez said he saw Tony after the devastating fire.

“He was distraught and full of fear. He almost lost everything. This is nothing compared to losing his son and wife,” Ramirez said. “Thank God he got that much out of it. The rest of it is replaceable.”

Firefighters said overnight fires are often dealy because people don’t wake up and don’t have enough time to get out.

But in this case, Tony’s wife smelled the smoke. And everyone had his or her door closed, which helped block the smoke.

The cause of the fire was under investigation.