A trio of California high-school students scored big points for oft-maligned teens everywhere on Monday when they rushed into a burning house to rescue a 94-year-old woman and her elderly dog, heroically saving their lives.



More on Yahoo Shine: Hero 13-Year-Old Saves Sisters From Burning Van



“Basically, they just reacted,” says Mark Corti, principal of California High School in San Ramon, California, where the three boys are seniors in the sports-medicine program. He tells Yahoo Shine that when he initially spoke with them about the dramatic incident, the friends, still smelling of smoke, shrugged it off as no big deal. “But as we continued to talk about the details,” Corti adds, “I think they were able to understand a little bit better that they had risked their own lives.”



It all began late morning on Monday, when Kirill Yantikov, Garen Kissoyan and Peter Kravariotis, all 17, were driving through a residential neighborhood near their school, reportedly skipping class to go to McDonald’s. That’s when they noticed thick smoke pouring out of a house, stopped to see what was happening, and found resident Dianna Davis, 71, calling 911 while struggling to douse flames with a garden hose. She told them her 94-year-old mother was still inside, meanwhile neighbor Bob Smith, 73, came out of the smoke-filled house, saying he needed help with the rescue.



More on Yahoo: Prison Sentence in Miss Teen USA Extortion Case



"Now that I think about it was crazy ... but in the moment it was instinct," Kissoyan tells the KTVU news team. "It was literally like a movie," adds Kravariotis. The three teens ran inside and found Davis’s mother in a chair, clutching the leash of her dog, an 18-year-old Jack Russell terrier who is deaf and partially blind. They worked together to carry them outside. "When we picked up the chair and we grabbed the dog," Kravariotis adds, “the only thing she said to us was 'I'm on fire,' and it was kind of shocking to me to hear that."



Smith says, "The elderly lady, she would have been gone a minute and a half more. I don't think she could have survived. I went in there and couldn't see my hand in front of my face. It was that bad."



While Davis was reportedly unharmed, her mother, whose name is unknown, is being treated in the burn unit of Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco, according to a spokesperson for the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District.



Corti won’t discuss the skipping class or punishment details, saying only “I’m doing what I think is appropriate,” and instead focusing on the boys’ heroism when speaking with the press — something he’s encouraged them to do, too. “I said, you are representing teenagers right now, and teens get a bad rap,” Corti says. “What you did shows teenagers doing a great thing.”



Alas, the McDonald’s run has gotten Yantikov, Kissoyan and Kravariotis a punishment of four volunteer hours each, according to the Contra Costa Times. “It's better than them giving us a detention,” Kravariotis admits, noting that he and his buddies have no regrets. “If that ever happened again,” he says, “I know we would go into a burning house.”



More on Yahoo Shine:

Teen Sues Parents for Cash, College Tuition. Does She Have a Case?

The Inspiring Teenage Track Star Who's Changing the Face of MS