An eight-year-old Chicago girl thought fast to come up with a solid plan when a fire broke out in her third-floor apartment. Fire officials report the girl threw a mattress out the window so she and her little brothers could jump to safety.
She made the jump and was convincing her five- and two-year-old brothers to follow her down when firefighters arrived. They used a ladder to get the boys down and the trio of siblings wasn’t hurt, but was later treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation. Their mother was at work and a neighbor was supposed to be babysitting when the blaze began just before midnight on St. Patrick’s Day.
District Chief Frank Velez, a Fire Department spokesman, says he was impressed with the young girl’s resourcefulness in the face of a life-or-death situation. “I wouldn’t recommend it,” he says of the mattress move, “but the fact of the matter is that the kid was quite innovative to think of something.”
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