DENVER -- Aaron Cordova can't believe his boss wrote him up for being late to work.

He admits that he was 50 minutes late for his job at the Edgewater McDonald's but said he had a good excuse: he was helping a neighbor whose house caught fire.

Kathy Griego said she went to her dad's house after the St. Patrick's Day parade.

"I went into the kitchen to make dinner and put a pan on the stove and it just blew up," Griego said. "The first thing I saw was all the flames shooting up the wall."

Griego said she ran outside and yelled for help. Cordova was walking toward his aunt's car when he heard Griego scream.

"My girlfriend and I ran across the street to see what was happening," the teenager said. "She said her house was on fire."

The victim went back into her house and was overcome by smoke.

"He literally picked me up and took me (back) outside, then stayed with me until the ambulance arrived," Griego said.

Cordova said that when the fire department arrived, he realized he was going to be late for work, so he called his boss.

"I guess she didn't believe me because she wrote me up," he said.

When asked about his reaction to that, he said, "It made me mad. I'm not going to just sit there and tell somebody, 'Well, I'm sorry I have to go to work even if your house is on fire.' That's ridiculous."

"He made the right decision," Griego said. "I think it's wrong that he got written up for that because he did something heroic."

The manager at McDonald's said she can't talk about personnel issues, but she did say Cordova is a "good kid." She also told 7NEWS that generally they don't write someone up unless they've been late for work more than twice.

Cordova said that's all in the past. He said he found a new job, working at Coors Field.