Tragedy struck an apartment complex in Mesa as a fire erupted in the early morning hours of Saturday, causing serious injuries to six people, including four children. The blaze was reported just before 2 a.m. at the Dobson Glen Condos, threatening the lives and homes of the residents. According to FOX10 Phoenix, the Mesa Fire Department had to respond to a third-alarm fire as people were urgently evacuated, and a handful suffered critical burns.
The ferocity of the fire was such that it took firefighters around five hours to fully extinguish. The victims ranged from six months to 13 years old, with the Mesa fire crews also highlighting that the conditions they battled were "extreme." In a desperate act of escape, the family — two adults and three children — was forced to descend through intense flames and smoke, as reported by AZ Family. With part of the building's roof collapsed, the remaining thirty residents had to be relocated to a nearby junior high school for support and shelter from the cold.
A touching story of heroism emerged amid the chaos. A 6-year-old girl, credited by her grandfather John Peshlakai, was the first to wake and alert her parents, leading to their escape from the engulfing flames. As Peshlakai said in an AZ Family interview, "She woke up first and went to wake up her mommy and daddy and at that point the whole place was engulfed in flames." The family now fights for their lives, intubated in intensive care, while the young girl suffers only minor burns.
Neighbours, while helping the firefighting efforts and those affected, also felt the brunt of the tragedy. In an expression of solidarity and action, they have set up GoFundMe pages — one to support the family's medical expenses, and the other by resident Tamlyn Ashcroft to replace her belongings after losing her first home to the fire. "I’m holding the baby still, and I’ve never held a baby in my life, and I was absolutely horrified that this little person was just not, they all were burnt," Ashcroft conveyed the horror of the situation in a statement obtained by AZ Family.
As investigations into the cause of the fire continue, the community's focus remains intensely on the recovery of those hospitalized. Dr. Frank LoVecchio from Valleywise Health Burn Center described the complexity of treating such injuries in a statement reported by FOX10 Phoenix: "You can imagine that if there's a fire around and I inhale the hot air, I inhale all the carbonaceous stuff, all that stuff can kind of go into your lungs and that can cause lots of problems," emphasizing the potential for a lengthy recovery process.
