PONTIAC, Mich. – Two children were critically injured, an infant had to be dropped from a second-story window, and a father threw a bicycle at a window to try to wake his kids as a fire burned through a Pontiac home early Tuesday morning.
The fire started around midnight Monday into Tuesday, July 25, at the Cornerstone Townhomes near Perry Street and Joslyn Avenue in Pontiac.
Firefighters were called to the scene, but before they arrived, a woman dropped her infant child out the window into the arms of her husband before jumping out herself.
“She couldn’t get out of her bedroom, so she threw the baby out of her bedroom and the dad caught the baby and set the baby right there on the ground,” said Gladys Turner, who called 911. “Then (he) kept telling the mom, ‘Jump, jump,’ and she said, ‘I can’t, I’m scared,’ and she finally jumped out the window and he caught her.”
The couple’s two young children were sleeping in the next room, trapped by the flames. Their father tried to wake them up.
“He kept throwing things up to the window, and finally, he threw a bicycle,” Turner said. “He was that strong. He threw a bicycle up there and broke the window.”
Firefighters arrived at the home within four minutes and pulled the children out.
“We do this thing: ‘Risk a lot to save a lot, risk a little to save a little,’” Waterford fire Chief Matthew Covery said. “Knowing there are two children in the home, the firefighters are going to risk everything they possibly can do to save those children, and they did an amazing job making entry.”
Both children were taken to the Children’s Hospital. They are in critical condition.
Here’s the report from Jacqueline Francis:
Here are more photos from the scene:
