CORONA, Calif. (AP) -- A brother and sister were called heroes Thursday after they rescued a mother and her 2-year-old daughter from a burning apartment while on the way to school.

The teen siblings were walking to Centennial High at about 7:20 a.m. Tuesday when they saw the fire in an apartment patio, Deputy Fire Chief John Medina said.

Sandra Romero, 17, and her 15-year-old brother Humberto knocked on the door of the first-floor apartment but at first nobody answered.

Humberto then went upstairs to the second-floor apartment, where he knocked on the door and got a resident to leave.

The two had called 911 and a dispatcher told them to stay clear of the fire but "I had a feeling someone was still there, like, something just held me back," Sandra told KCAL-TV in Los Angeles.

"I didn't want to go, so I kept banging on it (the bedroom window) and after awhile the lady that was sleeping with her little girl woke up and she was just shocked," Sandra said.

The flames had spread to the living room. The woman opened the bedroom door to the hallway but heat and smoke forced her back, fire officials said.

"I heard her scream like, 'Oh my God,' 'cause fire's just, like, burst into her room, flames," Humberto told KCAL. "And then she goes up to the window and she yells, 'Somebody please help my baby.'"

The woman pushed out a window screen and passed her daughter to Humberto, who said he gave the child to his sister and then returned to help the woman, who crawled out the window.

Medina said the mother, Lilibeth Silva, and her daughter, Lilimarie Beth, were not injured.

The fire was doused in a few minutes. However, the teenagers probably saved the lives of the mother and daughter because they would have been trapped for another eight to 10 minutes before firefighters could have reached them, according to a memo from fire Battalion Chief Chris Cox to Medina.

"They had no prior knowledge that someone was inside, they determined they hadn't done enough to check for occupants, they disregarded the instructions of the dispatcher to stay away from the fire, approached the window over heavy shrubs, just feet from the fire and effected the rescue, putting their own safety at risk," Cox wrote.

The Corona City Council plans to give commendations to the teens, who live in the neighboring unincorporated Home Gardens area of Riverside County, and the Fire Department plans to submit their names for consideration for a Burn Institute of the Inland Empire Spirit of Courage award, Medina said.

"We feel if it hadn't been for their actions, they (the occupants) could have been severely injured or died," Medina said.

"Everybody tells me that I'm a hero," Humberto said. "But I feel normal."

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