Firefighters Catch Babies, Rescue Several Residents After Apartments Go Up In Flames
OAK PARK (WWJ) - An elderly woman is dead after succumbing to injuries sustained in an early morning fire.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Barbara Davis was taken to the hospital in grave condition after being found unresponsive during the fire and died Thursday afternoon.
Firefighters in Oak Park arrived on the scene of a burning apartment building rescuing several residents who were trapped by the flames.
The fire took off early Thursday morning at the Versailles-Biarritz Apartments on 10 Mile Road just east of Greenfield Road.
Oak Park Public Safety Lt. Commander Marlin Benson said crews arrived on the scene and rescued a group of people from a balcony before attending to the fire.
"We did go in for an interior attack on the fire where they did find one lady inside her apartment," Benson told WWJ's Mike Campbell. "She was taken out of the apartment and transported to a local hospital for further treatment."
Tina Hudson, who was rescued from a balcony, said people were trying to escape the fire any way they could.
"I saw babies being thrown from the second floor down and the firemen, they caught the children, though. It was two babies being thrown down and then the father, he jumped down. So, I mean, you do what you've got to do to get out and that's what they did," Hudson said.
Firefighters from Huntington Woods and Berkley assisted crews from Oak Park at the scene.
A cause of the fire remains under investigation.