A HOUSE FIRE EARLY THURSDAY MORNING in Trenton, New Jersey, killed one child but firefighters were able to save three others, including one discovered 2 hours after they arrived.
WPVI-TV image
The 3-alarm rowhouse fire was dispatched shortly after midnight and the first-arriving units found fire showing on the 2nd-floor and through the roof. In the initial attack they were able to grab two girls ages 5 and 6. The mother had leapt from a window to escape the fire. The FD was made aware of a fourth child missing that was only 18 months old, but persistent search failed to find him. WPVI-TV describes what happened next:
Battalion Chief John Gribbin had a hunch to look into a small basement window. When he did he saw a pair of eyes looking back at him. They belonged to 18-month-old Augustin Pope. The little boy was treading in four feet of water.”I just kept talkin’ to him,” Gribbin said. “I didn’t want to leave. I was starting to take my gear off, because my intentions were to go through the window. The window was very small. I might’ve gotten stuck in the window, but I was getting him out of there, no matter what.”
The boy twice slipped below the surface of the water. The chief told the boy to go over to the water heater and hold onto it. That’s where another firefighter reached him.
The child that perished was a 7-yr.-old boy.
FirefighterNation has several videos from the scene posted HERE.
WPVI-TV also filed a good video report from the scene that includes an interview with the Batt. Chief HERE.
The three children have been released after being checked at the hospital, but the mother remains hospitalized. Three houses were damaged from the fire and investigators do not yet have a cause for it.
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