People jump from windows to escape White Plains apartment fire
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A story of heroism is emerging from a massive fire that destroyed seven apartments in Westchester County early Tuesday morning.
People were running outside barefoot, even jumping out of windows to escape the flames, and a man who just happened to be there risked his own life to help.
New video shows flames roaring inside the Half Moon Apartment Building on Lake Street in White Plains just after midnight. Fire officials say the blaze started on the second floor and quickly spread up to the fifth floor.
Seven apartments were completely destroyed as people took drastic measures to escape.
"There's a lady outside screaming out the window that her father can't get out, he can't walk, and I tried to get in the building and there was too much smoke, so I couldn't take him, so I had to run back out," Eddie Pagan told CBS2 exclusively.
Pagan says he was visiting his mother on the first floor when he smelled smoke, ran outside and realized people were jumping to escape.
"When she jumped, she jumped too far out. I tried to grab her a little bit, and I just grabbed as much as I can. Then we grabbed the daughter. She came down, we grabbed her perfectly," Pagan said. "It came second nature. I knew they were in trouble. The fire was right next to them. They were in the window, and you could see the flames next to the window."
Fidania Pyram and her toddler ran outside barefoot to escape.
"I could only grab my baby and run outside ... He's 2 years old," Pyram said. "He was having trouble breathing, but now he's fine."
Firefighters knocked down the fire in two hours but spent nearly 10 cleaning up the mess as residents tried to save what they could.
"We did get to go back in the apartment. It is completely destroyed. We tried to get baby bottles, the bottles were burned. Everything is destroyed," said Pearl Davis, a mother-in-law of one of the residents.
More than a dozen people were taken to the hospital, mostly for smoke inhalation. Fire officials said it could have been much worse.
The Red Cross is assisting the roughly 10 families whose homes were destroyed.
Given the extent of this damage, officials say it's still far too early to estimate when they might be able to return.
Officials are investigating whether a steam pipe may have caused the fire, but there has been no immediate word on an official cause.