Young girl saves mom from burning home

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    TURLOCK, California (KOVR) — A mom is alive thanks to the quick thinking of her 11-year-old daughter.

The Tudor’s Turlock home caught fire last week. Flames quickly tore through the garage and up to the second floor. As smoke filled the air, Paisley Tudor focused on getting her mother to safety.

The Tudor’s home still stands with the windows singed and all their belongings burned to the ground. Paisley Tudor remembers the sounds and smells of everything that night.

“I was really scared. I couldn’t see anything,” Paisley told CBS13. “All I smelled was this horrible smell of plastic burning and rubber. It smelled horrible and I could hear stuff falling.”

But in the panic to get out of their burning house, Paisley only thought of one thing. She wanted to make sure her mother made it out safely.

“I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have my mom. I thought that family was more important than items. Things can be replaced but people can’t,” said Paisley.

Paisley ran through the dark house straight to her mother’s room. She screamed, waking her up out of a sound sleep.

“By the time we’d made it out the front door and into the front yard, the whole front of the house was on fire,” said Justine Tudor.

Turlock firefighters rushed in to put out the flames. Justine says firefighters even grabbed as many pictures off the walls as they could. Almost everything is a total loss, even the garage where Justine’s car was.

“All the furniture was ruined, all the clothing, all the beds,” said Justine.

Perhaps it’s a home of two heroes. Justine ran back into the house to rescue their two puppies, only weeks old, that were trapped in their kennel. Now starting over in a rental home, this mom and daughter know they already have what matters most — each other.

“We act the same, we talk the same. We dress the same most of the time. She’s like an older twin,” said Paisley.

“I know she was probably scared out of her mind and first thing she thought was to wake up family and get out of the house. She didn’t think of anything else and I’m incredibly proud of her that she didn’t think of anything else,” said Justine.

They’re still missing two of their cats that they believe got scared off by the flames.

Looters rummaged through the rest of their belongings this week. Still, they’re thankful for all the community support, including clothes and a new bike for Paisley.

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