WASHINGTON, DC — Three children, all in respiratory or cardiac arrest, were pulled from a burning Southeast Washington apartment this morning. The District of Columbia Fire & EMS Department reports all three are alive and being treated at Children’s Hospital.
The call came in at 6:14 this morning from a resident of Apartment 306 at 1920 Naylor Road, SE. The first arriving crews from Engine 15 and Rescue Squad 3 headed to the third floor, but soon discovered the fire was one floor below in Apartment 206.
Security camera video from the building shows a woman trying to get into that apartment as smoke began filling the second floor hallway. Firefighters soon arrived. Capt. Bernard Holt of Rescue Squad 3 says no one in the hallway told the firefighters there were children in Apartment 206.
As Engine 15 extinguished a fire in the kitchen of the apartment, the crew from the rescue squad began searching the rest of the apartment. Firefighters J.C. Carroll and Charles Ryan were joined by Engine 15’s Mike Huskins as the three children were found in a bedroom. Firefighter Carroll tells STATter911.com that two of the children were on the bed and one was on the floor. Firefighter Huskins wrapped a sheet around one of the children to protect her from the heat as all three were taken out the apartment door and into the lobby.
Firefighters Pete Bagdovitz and Jeff Carroll aboard Ambulance 15 took all three children into their unit, the only ambulance on the scene. A decision was made to make an immediate transport with the help of the rescue squad crew to Children’s Hospital rather than wait for ALS units that had recently been requested by Battalion Chief Edwin Pearson, the incident commander.
A few blocks from the apartment building, Captain Cee Cee Wilson, an EMS supervisor, met up with Ambulance 15 and hopped aboard to provide ALS treatment for the youngest of the children, who was in cardiac arrest.
Capt. Wilson said all three were breathing when Ambulance 15 arrived at the hospital. The children are a five year-old boy, a two-year-old girl and a six-month-old girl.
DC fire officials say the father had gone to work just before 6:00 AM. He had asked a neighbor to check in on his children. Sources say the woman seen on security camera video, using a key to try and get into the apartment, is that neighbor from down the hall.
Fire investigators say it appears a burner on the gas stove had been left on and ignited combustible material. DC Fire & EMS Department PIO Pete Piringer reports there was no working smoke detector in Apartment 206.