A 13-year-old boy is being praised for his heroism after saving a 7-year-old from drowning in a California lake.

Lazaro Perez was visiting Lake Nacimiento Resort with his family on Sunday, August 18, when he saw another child “fall off an inner tube near the shore,” according to a statement shared on Facebook by the Monterey County Park Rangers Association.

The teenager, according to The grandstand“took action immediately” after they realized that the boy had not reappeared.”

When the child fell from the subway, he was not wearing a life jacket, officials said.

According to the Rangers Association, Perez was able to quickly find the seven-year-old and bring him to shore.

Teams from the Monterey County Park Rangers, Cal Fire Station 33 and San Luis Ambulance “examined” the patient at the scene, they added.

The family eventually took the child to a local hospital “for further medical treatment.”

The Rangers Association praised the teenager in its statement for his bravery the previous day, calling him a “heroic young man.”

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“Thank you, Lazaro,” the Rangers Association wrote on Facebook, “you really saved the day!”

According to a press release issued in May by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drowning deaths in the United States are on the rise.

The study estimates that more than 4,500 people died from drowning each year from 2020 to 2022, 500 more than in 2019, health officials said. Those numbers come after “decades of decline,” they added.

Some groups that were already at higher risk of drowning – including young children, adults 65 and older, and blacks of all ages – “saw the largest increase in drowning deaths.”