NEW YORK — A stifling fire Saturday sent people in Rockland County running for cover as smoke filled the multi-story apartment building.
A passerby saw the commotion and sprang into action, saving an 8-month-old girl from the top floor.
Emergency officials said the fire began in the afternoon in a building in West Eckerson Road in Spring Valley. Several tenants struggled to escape as the hallways filled with smoke.
A man from a neighboring complex said he ran inside, climbing a tree and jumping a fence to reach the building’s fire escape and reach the top floor to save the girl.
“I saw a lot of people there screaming. I saw a baby, I think it was a year old,” Jean Donald Mathieu said. “I tried to save the baby.”
Mathieu noted that the 8-month-old girl was going to be fine. But authorities said two people had to be treated for smoke inhalation.
Spring Valley Fire Chief Ken Conjura said more than 75 firefighters from five different departments were able to extinguish the fire in about 20 minutes.
The fire started in the kitchen of one of the apartments on the top floor, the same unit where the baby was rescued, Conjura explained. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
2024-02-05 17:46:30
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