SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KOVR/CNN) – A 10-year-old California boy is being hailed as a hero after he helped save a 4-year-old girl from drowning at his apartment complex pool on Wednesday.

“I went underwater and then I swimmed around, then I seen her, and I thought she was playing around,” Patrick Brewer said.

But 4-year-old Yazari Wright wasn’t playing around. She’d wandered into the deep end of the pool and couldn’t swim.

Patrick found her unconscious at the bottom.

“Yeah, I was scared,” he said.

But the 10-year-old self-described “fish” pulled her to the top and out of the pool, then called for help.

“I said, ‘I think she’s dying,’ and they got her out of my hands,” he said.

Makeya Richardson, who just finished CPR classes, was one of a few people who rushed to the girl’s side.

“It’s just like she was blue, like a blue cloud,” Richardson said. “I knew it right there, and I took my little hands and I made them a little bit smaller just for her.”

And finally, the girl started to cough and opened her eyes.

On Friday, Patrick was celebrated for his quick thinking, and made an honorary firefighter.

“To be able to act on something that he saw, a young lady in need, and then did the best that he could, just out of instinct, it’s incredible,” said Sacramento firefighter Sharon McIntyre.

For more stories like this that matter to you, click here to download the News 10 app for free.

Watch live newscasts, get breaking news and sign up for push alerts – download now