Family Prepared to Leap from Apartment with Makeshift Rope During Fire Before Firefighters Arrived & Said 'Do Not Jump'
A family was rescued from what they thought was certain death after they were caught in an apartment fire in Michigan.
On Monday (January 19), the Wyoming Fire Department responded to a call about a fire at Crossroads Apartments around 8:45 p.m.
According to a news release, first responders were informed that “multiple occupants were trapped on the third floor.”
Helmet camera footage supplied by the firefighters shows them rushing to the the scene, where they arrived as a family appeared to be preparing to jump from their third-floor window using a makeshift rope made of bedsheets.
“Do not jump,” they shouted, quickly deploying a 35-ft. ladder to get Anna Chavez, her young niece, her sister and her cat to safety.
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Speaking to News 8, Chavez recalls that her family was surrounded by “a lot of smoke and fire,” adding, “I am just thinking, I am going to die in here.”
For Chavez, it was most important that first responders get her niece to safety, saying, “If they can save her, it’s going to be okay because she’s a child and she’s little.”
Video shows firefighters reassuring the young girl as they rushed down the ladder to safety. They returned for Chavez‘s cat and then got her and her sister to safety.
“We got a lot of emotion in that moment, we were scared, we were having problems [breathing],” she recalled, telling Fox 17 that firefighters told her “to calm down a little bit” before they helped her down the ladder.
“I just want to say thank you, because they saved my life, and my niece’s life and my sister’s life,” she told the outlet.
She and her family were treated for smoke inhalation at a local hospital, according to the news release. Their injuries were deemed non-life threatening.
However, Chavez told Fox 18 that she lost everything in the fire. Additionally, she said that she is struggling with panic attacks, explaining, “because I remember everything.”
After getting the family to safety, they “battled harsh weather conditions during this fire with temperatures in single digits and wind chills below zero.”
The release continued, noting, “With the fire rapidly spreading, several areas of the building had already collapsed making it difficult for fire crews to extinguish the fire completely. An excavator was eventually brought in to assist with demolition of portions of the building.”
An investigation into the fire is still ongoing.
Just Jared contacted the Wyoming Fire Department for updates in the investigation but did not hear back at the time of publication.