The Most Adorable Hero Ever

[Content Note: Home fire.]

I love this girl so much I don't even know what to do with myself:

Reporter Gus Rosendale in voiceover, over image of 11-year-old Janixia Sota, a brown-skinned girl wearing a pink hoodie with her hair pulled into a ponytail, talking to a white man and a white woman on the sidewalk of a NYC street: Janixia Soto says instinct took over when she woke up to the smell of smoke.

Janixia Soto, onscreen: I don't know what I thought. I just, I was like, I was shocked, and I had just woken up, and I'm like, I never, like, I guess I never thought this would actually happen.

Rosendale in voiceover, over video of building: The fire started in the ground floor of this four-story Brooklyn building on East 18th Street, near Church Avenue, around six in the morning. The smoke swallowed the homes above. Janixia woke up her mom and younger brother, Walter [photograph of three-year-old Walter, a brown-skinned little boy with curly hair, wearing an orange shirt and holding a toy]—all of them trapped in their top-floor apartment. The eleven-year-old helped her family, including a pet dog and cat, get to the fire escape.

Soto, onscreen: I was thinking in my head, I was like, I hope this works; I hope this works; I hope this works!

Rosendale, in voiceover, over video of building: They made their way down, but then—another problem. The ladder was stuck. So Janixia looked down and made a tough call for a sixth-grader: She threw her younger brother to safety. She hoped and prayed neighbors down below would catch him. They did.

Soto, onscreen: My main concern, I guess, was to get him to safety. 'Cause I know how damaging smoke can be to, like, younger children.

Rosendale, in voiceover, over video of Soto holding the photograph of her brother Walter: Now Janixia is being called a hero. She says she's just a big sister—who knew what to do when every second counted.

Soto, onscreen: There was no time for me to, like, just stress and cry. No time at all. The main point was just: Get outta there and get safe.

That the fire escape failed in a crisis is unconscionable bullshit. But given that circumstance, I am awed by Janixia's calm under pressure, quick decision-making, and general competency in getting shit done. She is so smart, and so brave, and so precocious! I love her. And I'm so glad she and her family are safe.

[H/T to BYP.]