Hector Montoya has given hundreds of smoke detectors to needy people.
An 11-year-old Texas boy who has given hundreds of smoke detectors to those in need has been awarded a full scholarship to his local firefighter’s academy.
For donating 125 smoke detectors to the local fire department, the city of DeSoto honored Hector Montoya Tuesday night with a fire academy scholarship, a dream come true for the boy who wants to be a firefighter when he grows up.
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City officials plan to install the donated smoke detectors in the homes of seniors who suffer economic hardship.
Hector is "a really special little boy," his grandmother, Sandra Banks, told InsideEdition.com.
The child has been collecting smoke detectors since he was 9 years old, when he heard about a Fort Worth mother and her twin daughter who perished in a house fire.
The home had no smoke detector.
He took $400 he had been saving for a PlayStation 4 and bought the alarm systems instead, donating them to families without the live-saving devices.
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Since them, he has accumulated thousands, giving them away in cities across Texas because he is a compassionate and loving child, his grandma says.
He’s been helped along the way by Kidde, the largest manufacturer of fire safety alarms, local retailers, and money from his mother, his grandmother, his father, uncles and aunts.
“He just twists our arms,” his grandmother says, laughing.
He’s received several awards, she says, and the recognition just keeps coming.
Next year, he is scheduled to be honored by the Texas legislature.
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