7 people jump to safety as flames tear through Brockton home
BROCKTON - Seven people were forced to jump from the second floor to escape a fire at a home late Friday night in Brockton.
The fire started at the home on Montello Street just at 10 p.m.
Brockton Fire Chief Brian Nardelli said when firefighters arrived on the scene, the flames had spread to all three floors.
Seven people, resident Myriam Legrand, her husband, Reynaldo Ponce, and her five children, jumped to safety from a second-floor window.
Legrand, a mother of five children between the ages of two and fourteen, were having a bible study in her and her husband's room when the fire broke out. She says she is thankful her family is alive.
"All I remember is screaming 'Please catch my babies,'" Legrand said.
Ponce, the father of Legrand's two youngest children, ages two and three, was the first to notice the fire and immediately sprung to action.
"First I heard the fire alarm and then we noticed a cloud of smoke coming from the first-floor unit," he said. "So as soon as I seen the flames I ran to the first door to try and make an escape."
Legrand and Ponce said the smoke was so thick they had no chance of going out through the front door, resorting to escaping out the window. Ponce exited first and Legrand began dropping the children to safety in their father's arms.
"I couldn't do it at first," Legrand said. "I really couldn't. All I kept hearing is you have to drop them. You need to save them. It's the only way to get out. I dropped the first one."
Ponce caught all of the kids.
"I just kept my composure 'cause I knew that I just needed to be sure everybody needed to get out," he said.
Legrand was the last two jump to safety after getting all of her kids out. No injuries were reported to residents or firefighters.
Though everyone made it out alive, the family lost everything they owned in the blaze. They had moved into the second-floor unit less than a year ago.
"It's like what do I tell my children...All I have are the clothes on me," Legrand said.
A go fund me has been started by the family by friends and neighbors, but Legrand is just thankful all of her children are alive.
"Be thankful. Embrace life. Thank God pray because if it wasn't for Him I wouldn't be here. My kids wouldn't be here and their dad wouldn't be here. I am so thankful because it could've been so much worse," she said
Nardelli said the fire was put out within an hour.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation and a total of three families have been displaced.
