A mother and her two children are recovering after a fire broke out in a West End apartment building Friday morning.
The blaze started before 6:00 a.m. and was visible outside as clouds of smoke before intense flames began spreading through the building in the 400 block of Young Street.
"My girlfriend woke me up and told me get out,” said John Lebrun, who lives in the building.
But not everyone could get out. Witnesses say a mother and her two children were trapped inside their second floor apartment and needed to escape from the window.
People outside the apartment building gathered blankets to help catch the kids as they jumped. The first was a young girl.
"People out here were telling her to jump and they were holding a blanket up, but they missed her and she hit the sidewalk," said Roberta, who witnessed the dramatic scene.
She said the second child then jumped out of the window and was caught by people waiting below. The mother, however, did not leap. Instead, she climbed out on the ledge and waited for a rescue by the fire department.
"They had one lady hanging out of the window. They put a ladder up and got her out,” said Platoon Chief Frank Leswick.
All three were sent to hospital in stable condition.
Fire officials said the fire was in two units on the second floor and one in the third floor of the building.
"It took a while because of the extent of the fires and how it had spread rapidly,” said Leswick.
Firefighters were able to contain the damage to the building and save the house next door.
"Just a little charred on the top of the roof there…if there was a little bit of wind I think it would have caught,” said Diane Bannerman, who lives next door.
There is still no damage estimate or potential cause of the fire.
