Here’s the truth: news about the pandemic has made it seem like all news is bad news, but this luckily isn’t the case. However, when stories of infection rates and vaccine shortages are the only ones making headlines, it does feel like the reality of our situation. Today’s story is courtesy of this CNN article. In it, a young girl turned hero saves the lives of her COVID-19 positive family.

Waco, Texas – After smelling smoke in the middle of the night, a teenage girl pulled her three family members and four dogs out of their burning home. The rest of her family, in the midst of recovering from COVID-19, had lost their sense of smell, so she was the only one who could smell the smoke.

“I started smelling burnt plastic. That’s when I got more alert and I ran outside of my room,” she said in an interview with CNN affiliate KWTX. “I couldn’t even pass the hallway because it was filled with so much smoke.”

The home had broken smoke alarms, and the teenager’s family had yet to regain their sense of smell. About 86% of mild COVID-19 cases include loss of taste and smell, according to this study.

So, this young hero jumped into action. She helped her family escape through their back door. Then, she ran back inside to rescue their four pets.

“Honestly it was just me protecting my family and getting them to [safety],” she said. “It didn’t matter to me if I was going to get hurt or [if] I was going to get burned. As long as I got them out safe and sound, I was going to be fine.”