Rachel Rice
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — Police and firefighters rescued two small children from an apartment fire early Wednesday morning, officials said.
Firefighters received a call just before 5 a.m. about a fire in the 4400 block of West Florissant Avenue. Rescuers arrived to find fire on the second story of an apartment building with several people trapped inside.
Once firefighters entered, a captain heard a noise and found two small children — a toddler about 2 years old and a 7-month-old infant — behind a closed bedroom door, fire officials said. The toddler was carried out of the apartment by a firefighter and the captain handed off the infant to a police officer who had ascended a ladder to a second story window, authorities said.
“It’s just a great collaborative effort,” St. Louis Fire Department spokesman Garon Mosby said. “It’s not in the training manual, but we get it done.”
Officials later learned that an adult woman had jumped from a second story window.
Both children and the woman were transported to an area hospital. The children were treated for smoke inhalation and the woman was treated for inhalation, burns and the injuries from the fall.
Mosby said the children being behind a closed door may have saved their lives because it prevented the fire from spreading to them as quickly.
Four people on the third floor of the apartment building were also taken to a hospital “as a precautionary measure” for smoke inhalation, Mosby said.
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