A Lakewood man is being credited with saving a 4-year-old girl's life after catching her as she fell 15 to 20 feet from a second-story apartment window along Wadsworth Boulevard. West Metro Fire Rescue presented its Citizen Award to Caliel Rodriguez on Tuesday, recognizing his split-second decision to position himself beneath the window and break the child's fall.
The incident happened on July 23, when Rodriguez heard plastic hit the ground outside his home, according to KUSA 9NEWS. He looked up to see the girl hanging from the window before she fell, and rather than freeze, he dialed 911, handed the phone to his brother, and moved directly beneath her. As reported by FOX31 Denver, he caught the child the way a receiver might catch a pass, cushioning her fall with his own body.
Responding West Metro Fire Rescue paramedics evaluated the girl on scene and cleared her to stay with her mother, per the same account. The agency's decision to publicly honor Rodriguez this week underscores how differently this incident ended compared with other recent window falls across the metro area.
A Recurring Danger During Colorado Summers
Window falls involving young children tend to spike in warmer months, when residents open windows for ventilation and screens that are built for keeping out bugs get mistaken for barriers that can hold a child's weight. Federal safety records show that at least 25 children aged 12 and under died from window falls between 2021 and 2023, with 80 percent of those fatal falls happening between May and October, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The commission's 2026 data also estimated that 5,600 children aged 12 and under were treated in emergency departments in 2024 after falling from windows, with roughly one in three of those cases requiring hospitalization. A long-term study of CPSC records published in Pediatrics found that children aged 4 and under account for nearly two-thirds of all child window-fall emergency room visits, and that two-story falls — the same height involved in the Lakewood incident — made up 62.7 percent of injury cases. Researchers attributed young children's vulnerability partly to their higher center of gravity, which raises the risk of head injuries in a fall.
Denver Has Seen This Before
Lakewood's close call echoes a more severe incident from July 2025, when an 11-year-old girl suffered severe injuries after falling six stories from a window at the Tamarac Family Shelter in Denver. That window had reportedly been opened after the room's air conditioning system malfunctioned, according to CBS News, and the fall prompted scrutiny of window locks and climate maintenance at local shelters.
Building codes are designed to prevent exactly these scenarios. The International Residential Code requires fall-prevention devices on operable windows when the sill sits within 24 inches of the interior floor, and the drop to grade outside exceeds six feet, with Colorado municipalities generally adopting modified versions of that standard. Separately, ASTM International's F2090 standard governs window opening control devices and window guards, requiring them to restrict openings to less than four inches while still allowing emergency escape. It remains unknown whether the Lakewood apartment building where the July 23 fall occurred had such devices or functioning window screens installed.
West Metro's Regional Reach
West Metro Fire Protection District operates 17 stations across a 110-square-mile area, serving nearly 300,000 residents in Lakewood, Wheat Ridge, Golden, Morrison, Edgewater, and parts of Jefferson and Douglas counties. The district has held accredited status through the Commission on Fire Accreditation International since 2012 and secured its latest five-year reaccreditation through August 2027.
Rodriguez's rescue adds to a string of civilian interventions within the district's coverage area, including a Wheat Ridge trench rescue earlier this summer, as per Hoodline. Whether West Metro Fire Rescue offers renters specific guidance on window safety, and whether local housing authorities require retroactive installation of window guards in multi-family buildings remain open questions.
