DETROIT – A community on Detroit’s west side played a crucial role in the rescue of children from a deadly house fire Tuesday.
The fire broke out at about 9 a.m., Aug. 26, at a home on San Juan Drive, near the intersection of Livernois Avenue and 8 Mile Road. Five people -- including a 1-year-old -- were hospitalized. Two children remain in critical condition but are expected to survive.
One woman, believed to be the grandmother of the small children, did not make it out alive. Neighbors said she had mobility issues and was unable to escape.
Fire officials said the response time was four minutes, but in those critical first moments, the entire neighborhood stepped up to help save lives.
Jay Goody heard screams for help just before 10 a.m. inside the home, where a grandmother, a 14-year-old, a mother, a father, and two boys, ages 3 and 1, lived.
Neighbors said the mother was in the basement with the baby when the fire broke out. She handed the baby to neighbors through a window. Another neighbor performed chest compressions on a child who wasn’t breathing until firefighters arrived and took over.
Angela Boone, the first person to notice the smoke, flagged down TJ Davis for help.
“I grabbed one toddler from the side window and then kicked the side door open so they can get out,” Davis recalled. “I had to run in the kitchen so I could grab the other boy.”
Davis said he crawled through the thick smoke until he found the child.
“He went in there and got that baby, brought that baby out,” Boone recalled. “The baby wasn’t breathing at first -- and the baby started breathing. The neighbor came over and started pushing on the baby.”
Davis said he was just doing what he hoped anyone else would have done if they were in his shoes.
Fire officials said the toddler and the teenager rescued by firefighters are being treated for smoke inhalation and burns. The mother, father, and 1-year-old are stable.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.