Good Samaritans rescue 4 children from burning 2-story apartment
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A group of good Samaritans on Sunday rescued four children from a fire.
“We’re just happy that everybody made it out good and alive,” said one of the good Samaritans, Anthony Williams, on Monday.
Crews with the Indianapolis Fire Department went around 6:45 p.m. Sunday to a two-story unit in the Postbrook Apartments in the 4000 block of Windhill Drive. That’s southeast of East 42nd Street and North Post Road on the city’s northeast side.
A teen and four younger children were in the apartment when the fire started, the fire department said in a news release. The teen told firefighters he was asleep upstairs and his mother was cooking before she left the apartment.
Fire officials said the fire started in the kitchen and quickly destroyed the apartment. At the front door, soot was on the exterior walls. Shattered windows and a broken fence were behind the burned apartment.
“There was so much black smoke that nobody was able to go in there,” Williams said.
Williams ran to the apartment to help. He says a teenager told him his siblings were still upstairs. Three of the children had jumped out a window. They were caught by good Samaritans gathered below, but their little sister was still inside.
“It was so bad and even with her in there we tried to get in there,” Williams said. “We just heard this big old boom noise and that scared us a little bit.”
Williams says he jumped onto the shoulders of another man, grabbed the little girl and brought her to safety.
“There was a lot of people already outside and so they said there was a kid inside,” said Diamond Price, one of the good Samaritans.
“There was a 3-year-old upstairs and it was me and probably four other guys that we gave a boost to get to the window,” Price said.
“I don’t know if God was in it,” Williams said. “She just came to the window and was like I was able to get up there and grab her and help her get out of there and it was just like a blessing.”
“She wasn’t breathing too good and so what was just trying to keep her OK and we was trying to give her water,” Williams said.
Diamond Price helped Williams rescue the child. He says it was a scary situation and that he tried to get inside the apartment.
“I tried to open the door and walk in, but it was too much,” Price said. “I couldn’t breath at all.”
The two men say they thought about the love for their kids and were determined to help.
“My fatherly instincts definitely kicked in and it was just like if my child I would’ve done the same thing,” Williams said. “I would’ve done whatever I had to do to survive and do the best that I could.”