Two children trapped on the second floor of a burning Detroit home were pulled to safety Saturday morning after firefighters broke a window and carried them down a ladder, according to the department. The children, ages 12 and 5, had been accompanied by their grandmother and were unable to escape because of fire and smoke filling the house.
Detroit Fire Department crews were dispatched just before 11:40 a.m. to the 2500 block of Woodstock, near 8 Mile Road and Woodward Avenue, as reported by Metro Detroit News. Firefighters found the two kids trapped upstairs and unable to get out on their own, and worked quickly to break a window and bring them down a ladder to the ground. Additional crews extinguished the fire as firefighters brought the children down the ladder.
Both children were taken to Children's Hospital of Michigan, and their injuries were described as not life-threatening, according to the department. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
A Pattern of Close Calls Across Metro Detroit
Saturday's rescue follows other recent fires in the region in which children escaped from homes through windows. In July, an Oakland County deputy and Orion Township firefighters responded to a house fire in the 2900 block of Meadowbrook Court shortly before 5 p.m., where a 10-year-old boy and his 12-year-old brother were trapped on the second floor, according to MLive. The deputy helped the boys through an upstairs window and lowered them to the ground before firefighters arrived and extinguished the blaze, which also spared the family dog.
Those two brothers were treated for smoke inhalation at Trinity Health Hospital and later released, the outlet reported. As in Saturday's Detroit fire, the cause of the Meadowbrook Court blaze was still under investigation when that report was published.
In May, a Detroit grandmother described a similar scramble to get her grandchildren out of a burning house. Six relatives, including four grandchildren, were inside the home when fire broke out, and one granddaughter escaped by jumping from a back window, suffering only minor injuries, according to ClickOnDetroit. That fire destroyed the homeowner's bedroom, wiping out clothing, furniture and cash she had saved.
A Deadlier Outcome Last Summer
Not every rescue has ended without loss. Last August, a Detroit house fire left five people hospitalized, including a 1-year-old, after neighbors helped pull children from the burning home, in one case receiving a baby handed through a window. A woman believed to be the children's grandmother did not survive that fire, ClickOnDetroit reported at the time, and the cause of that blaze also remained under investigation.
A separate apartment fire response in Detroit, detailed by Firehouse, showed crews arriving with ladders to assist trapped residents down from second-floor windows after being told people might still be inside. The first company on scene arrived within 5 minutes and 49 seconds, and firefighters kept that fire from spreading beyond 10 to 12 apartment units. A man and woman in their 50s were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation in that incident.
No details on what sparked Saturday's fire near 8 Mile and Woodward have been released, and the Detroit Fire Department has not said whether the home will be a total loss. For now, the children were rescued from the upstairs fire and treated for injuries that were not life-threatening.
