Teen badly injured in quake says he's lucky to be alive

NAPA, Calif. (KGO) -- We are now hearing firsthand from one of the youngest people injured in Sunday's powerful 6.0-magnitude earthquake.

From his hospital bed at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, 13-year-old Nicholas Dillon said he is fortunate to be alive after a pile of bricks from a collapsed chimney crushed him at his Napa home during a sleepover.

The teen's best friend, Imnol Villanueva, says the two were doing math homework in Dillon's living Saturday night and fell asleep. Villanueva was on the couch and Dillon was on the floor next to the fireplace.

Dillon said that after he was jolted awake by the quake, he checked on his friend and then tried to get out of the house.

"I started crawling to get to the door and just as I was going to get to the door, the chimney collapsed on my back," he said. "And I stumbled a little forward on the floor. And I was laying there during the earthquake. I was screaming my mom's name. She fell twice trying to get to me. I was on the floor for maybe 30 minutes to an hour. The firemen came. Then the paramedics showed up afterwards."

Dillon underwent a nine hour surgery at the hospital to repair a crushed pelvis.

If he hadn't tried to get away from the falling bricks and warn his friend, the situation could have been much worse.

His family said they had the fireplace worked on years ago after a prior quake, so they're surprised it came down.

ABC7 News reporter Sergio Quintana contributed to this report.