5-year-old Matthew Hansen saved his family, after alerting them of a house fire that consumed their home as they slept.

Matthew woke up in the middle of the night and felt that his eyes were burning up. While he couldn’t see his room filling up with black smoke, he could tell that something was wrong.

“I need my eyes checked, mommy, I can’t see,” he tried to call out to his parents.

“Greg said to him, ‘You can’t see because it’s dark out and you’re sleeping,’” his mom Christina Hansen explained.

Fortunately, Matthew remembered the day when the firefighters came to visit his school.

“I felt something, and at school, they told us what to do if your butt is ever on fire,” Matthew said. “You stop, drop and roll. You’re never supposed to hide, and you’re always supposed to call for help. So I called my mom and dad.”

After Matthew continued to cry out for his parents, his mom finally woke up and discovered the black smoke. She immediately snatched Matthew and carried him outside.

Matthew’s dad Greg Hansen tried to halt the kitchen fire by throwing water at the growing flames. But by the time the firefighters had arrived, the kitchen burnt down and the dining room and bathroom were damaged. It was later discovered that the electric stove short-circuited and turned on, setting a cupcake pan on fire.

“Many people have died from lack of early detection,” Firefighter Michael Davis said. “This family was two minutes away from that, if not for Matthew waking up. The smoke would have blocked the stairwell.”