Boy jumps from burning building, saving his dog and himself

As a four-alarm fire tore through a three-story building in San Francisco’s Mission District Wednesday night, one 13-year-old was forced to make a dramatic exit.
 
Alessandro Gonzales never heard his building’s smoke alarms, just the screams of neighbors.

“I opened the door, and smoke came through inside the house, and I couldn’t see nothing,” Alessandro told the San Francisco Chronicle. “It was dark, dark.”

He quickly grabbed his dog, smashed a window, and made his way down the fire escape.

“I couldn’t get the window open, so it took me a few pushes and I accidentally shattered the window,” said Gonzales. “I went down to the second floor down the ladder. That’s when I had to jump.”

Before jumping to safety, Gonzales first saved his pup. “They were like, ‘Throw your dog first,’” he told KPIX 5. “At those times you don’t think, you just do.”

The fire has left 54 people, including Alessandro and his mom, homeless.
 
An online campaign started by neighbors is taking donations to help those displaced by the fire get back on their feet. The GoFundMe campaign has already raised more than two-thirds of their $60,000 goal.