CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A woman died Thursday night in an apartment fire that included the dramatic rescue of a baby, fire officials and neighbors said.
The woman was unresponsive when firefighters pulled her from the building and Emergency Medical Service personnel gave her CPR en route to the hospital, said Capt. James Brown of the Corpus Christi Fire Department. An infant, who neighbors said was dropped to safety from a second-story window, was taken to a local hospital with non life-threatening injuries, fire officials said.
Fire officials weren’t releasing the name of the woman late Thursday.
Eloy Guerra, who lives at the apartment complex in the 800 block of Barry Street, was barbecuing outside when he heard a woman scream. He rushed to see what was going on and saw a fire in a second-floor apartment at the back of the Woodbury Place apartment complex.
“She threw the baby out,” he said. “Somebody had already rescued the baby and I was trying to help her.”
“I was right under the window and I was saying, ‘Jump, jump. I’ll catch you.’ But then I heard silence so I went around to the apartment (and) opened the door, but when I looked in, it was engulfed in flames.
“I did what I could,” Guerra said. “I feel terrible.”
Fire officials said they were called to the fire about 8:08 p.m. and put out the fire within 30 minutes. Officials late Thursday still were trying to determine the cause of the fire, which began in a ground floor unit.
A second woman in the second-story apartment suffered from smoke inhalation but didn’t need to be taken to the hospital, Brown said.
The fire affected three units in one building of the complex. Brown said he didn’t know how many people lived in those units.
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