Curt Adams says he happened to be in the right place at the right time to help save the teenager, who was trapped on the second floor as the fire roared through her home.
The home on the 1300 block of Sedona Drive went up in flames just after 6 p.m.
Adams was in his garage when he saw flames coming from the windows next door.
"She came out onto the ledge, but she wasn't willing to jump down from the ledge onto the driveway," he said.
Adams grabbed an extension ladder from his garage and handed it to another neighbor, who set it up and helped bring the girl down.
An 8-year-old boy who was also in the home managed to escape and get help. Moments later, the fire spread quickly, and the family dog died.
"I did not realize how fast a house fire could go," Adams said. "It had blown out the window in the back and then there was a steam of fire coming out up to the second floor."
Firefighters arrived quickly to extinguish the fire. The blaze also damaged Adams' home.
"The important thing to note is that this young lady was rescued from the building and when the firefighters got there, the fire was just too intense for them to enter. So they had to cool the fire down before they could get in and extinguish it," said Capt. Ian MacDonald of the Orange Fire Department.
On Tuesday, neighbors who witnessed the fire surveyed the damaged and praised their neighbors' quick action.
"It's just real nice to know that I have neighbors that watch out for each other, because if they weren't there to hear the kids screaming, I don't know what would have happened," Abraham Elliott said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
