"McFarland" 11years old girl saves family from house fire

MCFARLAND - An 11-year-old girl is being hailed a hero, after saving lives when her home caught fire in McFarland. 

Twenty people from three families were crammed into the three-bedroom house in the 200 block of San Pedro Street

The fire started early Sunday morning, and if not for the quick actions of Maria Elias, the ending to this story could have been much worse.


"Because if something happened to my brothers." Maria Elias can hardly contain her emotions as she recalls trying to get her younger sister and brothers to safety after a fire started in her house.

"I would hold her tight, a little bit tight because I would not want to leave her down," said Elias.

Elias says she had a premonition Saturday night that something bad was about to happen. 

"I couldn't go to sleep because I knew something was going to happen," she recalled.

The fire gutted the house, causing an estimated $85,000 worth of damage.

"Interviewing people on scene, they determined that they feel it was caused by electrical. And, the reason they came to that conclusion, they had one of the individuals in the house who was laying on one of the beds and looked over, noticed a popping and burning smell coming from one of the walls near the bed," said Corey Wilford, Kern County Fire Department.

No one was seriously hurt.

"Our firefighters on scene never found a working smoke detector in the structure and the residents were actually lucky enough that somebody witnessed the fire and we want to really stress to people that smoke detectors save lives," added Wilford.

Whether the landlord will face fines for faulty smoke detectors, has not been decided.

The City of McFarland is investigating whether too many people were living inside the home per state law.

The Kern Chapter of the American Red Cross has provided temporary housing and clothing to those left homeless from the fire.