Californian teenager, Petelo Finau (18) of Hayward, is being commended for saving his autistic 13-year-old brother from a house fire that erupted at their home last Friday night.

According to local reports, the fire forced Petelo to jump from the second floor of his house onto the grass below. Petelo than climbed up to his brother’s bedroom which was filled with heavy smoke. Petelo’s brother, Francis Finau, is autistic and scared of heights.

Petelo told ABC news, "I tried to enter the kitchen, but the heat was too strong. It caught my hair on fire and my beard on fire and it started blinding me,".

Petelo struggled to get his younger brother out. According to witnesses, Francis was so terrified that he shut the window on Petelo who was attempting to yank him out. Petelo waited for almost a minute before his brother eventually opened the window.

"I jumped on to the window and pulled myself up. And tried opening the window but my little brother, he's autistic, so he was too scared to exit out through the window. So, he closed the window on me," 

"I was just yanking him as hard as I can and then I broke the window and I flung it open,"

As Petelo helped his brother out, a neighbour brought a ladder which allowed the two to easily get down. Peter’s 13-year-old brother was transported to hospital where he was treated for smoke inhalation.

Local firefighter John Whiting stated “I think that this young man has some athletic ability that probably a lot of us aren’t blessed with and I think that probably led to the positive outcome that we’re talking about,”

Peter told ABC news that he was scheduled to leave home to join the navy "I am joining the navy and I am leaving. And I am leaving next week to go to deploy. So we train and we do as much as we can.”