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(Image source: Art Barron/KCAL)
BY JASMINE BAILEY
A nine-year-old girl hiked alone through the dark, cold and dangerous California desert
to save her father’s life after their car crashed and rolled into a ravine.
Celia Renteria and her father, Alejandro Renteria, were traveling back from his friend’s house
at about 1:00 a.m. Sunday night. KCAL reports it is believed he was drinking alcohol.
“The father could not negotiate this curved on Sierra Highway. Both he and his daughter
became airborne crashing in the ravine below. Her family says she never panicked. After
she smelled gasoline, she turned off the engine.”
She then climbed out of the SUV window, as her father lay unconscious. She walked some
two miles in the complete darkness through what authorities call a “very, very threatening
environment.” (Via CNN)
According to KABC, Celia went to the nearest house, but no one answered.
“So she then made her way back to the wreckage to check on her father before scaling this
hill — a good 200-feet up — to get the Sierra Highway… She then walked a mile in
the cold to the nearest Metrolink station.”
It was there that she flagged down a passerby. Authorities arrived to the scene about an
hour and a half after the accident. Alejandro Renteria was pronounced dead at the scene.
(Via Los Angeles Times)
Celia was then airlifted to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where she is recovering with her
family by her side. Such a brave little girl.