THE DETROIT, MICHIGAN, FIRE DEPARTMENT was dispatched just before noon yesterday to a house fire. On arrival they found a two-story frame dwelling on fire and a group of neighbors and residents out front screaming that two children were trapped inside.
The Ladder 10 truckies rushed into the upstairs front bedrooms and began a hasty search as the fire was advancing down the hallway from the rear of the house.
The Detroit Free Press quotes L-10 Lieutenant Robert Distelrath:
“When we got to the top of the stairs, the fire was starting down the hallway. We really didn’t have any choice but to search the two front rooms,” Distelrath said. “There was heavy smoke everywhere…. I found them on the floor between the bed and the dresser,” he said. “I found the kids by touch; I couldn’t see them.
“I told Risher, ‘I got them. I got them,’ ” he said. “I passed one of them off, and we got out of there.”
Neighbors said a 5-year-old made it out on his own. An older man reportedly jumped out of a window to escape. The boys’ mother, Carneitha Sullivan, also escaped.
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Lt. Distelrath at the fire building
DFP photo
Rescue crews rushed both children, 1-year-old DeCardeia Sullivan and 3-year-old Demarion Sullivan, to Children’s Hospital of Michigan, performing CPR along the way.
Both boys are in the hospital’s intensive care unit. DeCardeia Sullivan was upgraded to serious condition late Friday. His brother remains in critical condition.
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