A 7 year-old boy is being hailed as a hero after he risked his life to save his baby sister when his family’s home caught on fire earlier this month.

December 8 was originally just another night for Chris and Nicole Davidson and their three children, and they tucked their kids in bed by 8:30pm. It wasn’t until the middle of the night that Chris and Nicole woke up to the smell of smoke in their home in New Tazewell, Tennessee.

“And about 11:30 someone woke me up and I know it was God,” Nicole later told WLTV-TV.

She added that Chris, who happens to be a fireman, “grabbed the fire extinguisher trying to buy me time to get the kids, and I grabbed the boys because they were closest to the fire.” They ran outside, but their 22-month-old daughter was still inside the burning home, as the inferno in the living room was blocking her parents from accessing her room.

“The scariest moment of my life was when I couldn’t get her,” Nicole lamented.

“The smoke and fire was so thick there was no way I could get to her,” Chris added to CNN. “We went outside to get to her from the window, but there was nothing for me to stand on to reach up there.”

That’s when their 7 year-old son Eli stepped up.

“Dad busted the window and then I said, ‘I can’t do it,’ like two times, and then I said, ‘I got her dad,'” Eli recalled. “And when we went down there I said, ‘I was scared but I didn’t want my sister to die.'”

Chris went on to say that he “picked up Eli, who went through the window and was able to grab her from her crib.”

“We couldn’t be more proud of Eli,” Chris said. “He did something a grown man wouldn’t do.”

Though the baby was saved, the Davidsons’ home burned to the ground. Chris and Nicole have previously fostered 34 children, including Eli, and they’ve adopted two others. The family is now struggling, as they no longer have a home.

“We lost everything that we have ever had,” Chris said. “Our entire lives were in that home. Our three cars were also damaged in the fire. It’s devastating. We have nothing. You have never been as humble as you are when you don’t even have your own underwear to wear.”

Thankfully, a GoFundMe page has raised over $340,000 for the family.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Nicole said, addressing those who have donated. “I could never repay anyone for their kindness that they’ve shown my family. Please know that it will always be with me, it’s not something you forget about. I am beyond grateful.”

As for Eli’s newfound fame, she added, “I read several of the comments to him, and his reply to me this morning was ‘Mom I’m gonna be famous.’ I still don’t think at his age he grasps what he has done and how phenomenal that is.”