DETROIT – A Detroit mother was forced to drop her two young children from the second floor of their burning home before jumping herself.
The mother, Victoria Witherspoon, is speaking out to share her story and thank the two neighbors who caught her children as she let them go from the second floor.
“I felt like it was chasing us out the door,” Victoria Witherspoon said. “You feel the fire chasing you. You understand you don’t have many more options.”
Witherspoon was upstairs in her Rosedale Park home on Aug. 14 when the fire started. She said she felt like she was being chased up the stairs by fire and black smoke that was close behind her.
Witherspoon said the first thing she heard was her smoke alarm. That’s when she grabbed her 18-month-old daughter Zaria and her 3-month-old son Osiris.
Her only way out was an upstairs door that once opened to a balcony. Her plan was to hold her children, one in each arm, and then jump -- trying to brace the fall for her children. Her neighbors came to her rescue just in time.
They told Witherspoon they would catch each child if she dropped them down to them.
“There were windows breaking out as they were trying to save me,” she said. “It felt like it was chasing us out the door.”
She trusted her neighbors and dropped her children down to them. When her children were safe, she jumped down herself.A Detroit mother and her two young children were forced to jump to safety as their home went up in flames.
The mother, Victoria Witherspoon, is speaking out to share her story and thank the two neighbors who caught her children as she let them go from the second floor.
“I felt like it was chasing us out the door,” Victoria Witherspoon said. “You feel the fire chasing you. You understand you don’t have many more options.”
Witherspoon was upstairs in her Rosedale Park home on Aug. 14 when the fire started. She said she felt like she was being chased up the stairs by fire and black smoke that was close behind her.
Witherspoon said the first thing she heard was her smoke alarm. That’s when she grabbed her 18-month-old daughter Zaria and her 3-month-old son Osiris.
Her only way out was an upstairs door that once opened to a balcony. She planned to hold her children, one in each arm, and then jump -- trying to brace the fall for her children. Her neighbors came to her rescue just in time.
They told Witherspoon they would catch each child if she dropped them down to them.
“There were windows breaking out as they were trying to save me,” she said. “It felt like it was chasing us out the door.”
She trusted her neighbors and dropped her children down to them. When her children were safe, she jumped down herself.
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