Woman Jumps 7 Stories To Escape Flames From Apartment Fire
DETROIT (WWJ) - A blaze Sunday morning on Grand River near Rose Parks in Detroit has left a woman in critical condition with internal injuries after she jumped seven floors to the ground for to escape the flames.
Deputy fire chief Dave Fornell says neighbors tried to help break the woman's fall.
"They put some couch cushions down -- and they were holding a blanket, normally that will not break someone's fall enough to keep them from being seriously injured -- especially from the seventh floor -- it ended up she did hit the blanket and the witnesses said she bounced off the blanket and hit the ground."
Fornell says units initially responded to the complex after reports of an injury and they discovered the building on fire.
"It went out very quickly, our people got up there - they checked the floors, they checked for victims -- got a Hose line on the fire pretty quickly; so our people did a terrific job of getting in there and putting the fire out," says Fornell. "It was contained to the one apartment -- it didn't spread and at this particular point our department has turned the scene over to our arson investigators."
Nearly 150 residents of the multi-unit complex were out in the street, some of those residents still not able to return to their homes.
Several other people are being treated for smoke inhalation.
