Firefighters pull boys from burning Atlantic City home
By LYNDA COHEN and EMILY PREVITI Staff Writers | Posted: Saturday, October 24, 2009 | 16 comments
ATLANTIC CITY - A few more breaths and it could have been a different story.
Two children trapped inside their smoke-filled bedroom early Saturday morning were rescued just in time, Deputy Chief Scott Evans said. They were flown out for treatment of injuries from smoke inhalation.
"They were probably within minutes of going unconscious, if not seconds," Evans said....Continue Reading
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The 12:46 a.m. call came in from a neighbor who smelled smoke, so when the firefighters from Station 1 arrived at the Atlantic Garden Apartments, they were surprised to find the first-floor home engulfed in flames, Evans said.
As the members of Ladder 1 began heading in the front door of 125 N. South Carolina Ave., a woman came running toward Evans screaming in Spanish.
While Evans didn't understand her words, he realized she was pointing to the room farthest from where the firefighters entered. Just then, Firefighter Jeff Bird was going by with the rest of Ladder 1. Evans told him what was happening, and Bird ran to the window.
As soon as Bird took his sledgehammer to the glass, thick smoke poured out.
"I could hear them crying," Bird said of the boys, Abalid and Edwin Barahona.
He leaned into the window, and called out for the children to come to him, but they didn't move: "I think they were close to being taken over by the smoke."
Evans watched as Bird threw on his mask and disappeared into the black smoke.
"He didn't hesitate at all," Evans said.
"You couldn't see a thing," Bird said. "You couldn't see anything at all. I could feel a bed, that's it."
Inside, both children were crying. From outside, he heard the pleas of their mother. He found the first child, 8-year-old Abalid, and handed him to a police officer outside, then headed back in. He then located the 9-year-old Edwin.
As he tried to lift the heavier child, two members of Engine 7 had reached the room, after battling through the blaze in the kitchen, where the fire is believed to have started.
Capt. Shannon Stinsman and Firefighter Greg Rando helped Bird get the boy through the window, Evans said.
The mother was hysterical, running to her children and trying to talk to them.
"The kids were coughing and puking, spitting up," Evans said of a common aftermath of smoke inhalation. "It was pretty chaotic."
"It all happened so fast," Bird said.
He took a moment to collect himself, and then went back to help fight the fire. That's when he noticed his left hand "got real tingly."
Bird went outside, took off his thick glove and saw "blood all over the place."
"His hand was chewed up like a dog bit it," Evans said.
Bird doesn't remember injuring it, but believes it likely happened when he leaned on the frame of the window he had just broken.
An ambulance had to be called, and Bird received seven stitches.
"I think it's a great rescue," Evans said. "He did an awesome job."
The children's conditions could not be confirmed Saturday night.
"After it's all over and you're sitting in the ambulance, that's when you think about, that could be your kids," said Bird, who has two small children and a teenage niece he raises.
Now, the five-year veteran just wants to get back to work. Twenty-seven firefighters responded to the blaze, "I just happened to be going by at the time," Bird said.
"They made a really good stop on that fire," he said of those who battled the blaze. "If they had not gotten it out quickly, that could have gotten real ugly, especially since it was night and people were sleeping."
Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the blaze. The first floor sustained about $175,000 worth of damage; the upper two levels, another $25,000, Chief Dennis Brooks said.
Atlantic City Police helped firefighters lead about 10 people out of the upper two levels as well as the building next door. The flames did not touch the adjacent structure, but authorities ordered residents out as a precaution, Brooks said.
The fire was under control at 1:07 a.m., and firefighters cleared the scene at 2:45 a.m., Evans said.
Officials have shut off all utilities, except water, to the building. Residents can go back once city code enforcement clears the structure for occupancy, Brooks said.
Evacuees went to stay with friends and relatives last night, Brooks said.
Contact Lynda Cohen:
609-272-7257
Contact Emily Previti:
609-272-7221
Posted in Top_three, Atlantic_city, Atlantic, Breaking on Saturday, October 24, 2009 2:20 pm Updated: 11:02 am.
