An 8-year-old girl is safe after jumping from her apartment balcony to escape a fire.
What We Know:
- The fire broke out on Wednesday night at around 6 p.m. on the 500 block of 169th Street in the Bronx, New York. The young girl jumped down six stories and broke both her legs during the fall. She was taken to a nearby hospital and is expected to survive.
- Officials from the New York City Fire Department have not specified what caused the fire but noted it took more than 100 firefighters to tackle the blaze. Seven firefighters and one other person are believed to have suffered minor injuries.
- A video released on Twitter by a spectator showed the apartment complex emitting a thick column of black smoke.
— Cell 王 (@Celuta96) April 28, 2021
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After making the child made the 60-foot drop to the ground, neighbor Linda Kemp remembers how she and other nearby residents huddled around the girl to keep her calm. “I held her down so she wouldn’t move, to try to keep her from moving her neck and her body parts,” Kemp told NBC News. “First, she didn’t understand why we were holding her down. She was like, ‘Let me go, let me go.’ I had to explain to her that I couldn’t.”
Evacuated residents were allowed to return to the apartment building after firefighters cleared the scene.
