A TEENAGE hero rescued a woman from a burning building before re-uniting her with her eight-year-old son.

Jasmine-Leigh Reynolds, 17, didn’t think twice when the child came running past her house screaming ‘the house is on fire’.

She ran down the road to hear a fire alarm and found a pregnant woman at the front door of the burning house, in Wilson Marriage Road, Colchester.

Jasmine-Leigh, of Colchester, said: “I told her not to go in.

“I opened the door, ran upstairs and saw the bed was on fire.

“There was thick smoke everywhere.

“I stepped outside to get some fresh air and I ran back inside to the living room and I just couldn’t see her.”

Jasmine-Leigh went back outside again because of the smoke, only to find the woman’s eldest son, 24, coming home from work.

Together they went back into the living room and found the woman behind the sofa.

Jasmine-Leigh, who studies at Colchester Institute and works at McDonalds, said: “She tried to get back into the house and we kept having to pull her out.”

Fire engines then arrived and put out the blaze before paramedics took Jasmine-Leigh, the woman and her eldest son to Colchester General Hospital to check for smoke inhalation.

Jasmine-Leigh said other than that they were all fine.

She said: “The little boy made me cry in the ambulance. He said ‘You’re my hero’.

“The paramedics said most 17-year-old girls wouldn’t even dream of running into a house on fire.

“A lot of people have told me they are proud. It was a bit stupid.

“My parents said they could have lost their daughter but I wasn’t thinking about that.

“People have said I’m an inspiration but I just wanted to reunite an eight-year-old boy with his mum.

“I just did what I needed to do.”

It is not known what caused the fire.

Essex Fire and Rescue Service has said an investigation is on-going.

The fire started at 4.24pm on Wednesday and was put out by 5.06pm.