Oct 26, 2009 9:30 pm US/Eastern
2 Young Brothers Rescued From A.C. Fire
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS 3) ―
Despite have working smoke detectors inside their Atlantic City apartment, two young brothers nearly died during an overnight fire early Saturday.
Seven fire, ladder and rescue trucks responded within moments.
The emotional rescue is still fresh in the minds of firefighters involved, many are father's themselves.
The smell of soot now replaces frantic cries for help that came from a fiery first floor apartment.
"The mother was screaming out front 'my kids are trapped, my kids are trapped,'" said Capt. Shannon Stinsman.
Firefighter Kevin Evans added, "The visibility was zero … we couldn't see anything, I had my flashlight, but was feeling my way through black smoke and going off of memory."
Atlantic City Firefighter Jeff Bird broke a bedroom glass window, cutting his hand. He was the first one inside.
"I tried calling them, they wouldn't come to me. I could hear them screaming and crying … just real bad cries." Bird said.
Bird says it was the toughest rescue of his five and a half years with the Atlantic City Fire Department.
"The fire was hot, the smoke you couldn't see a thing, it was black."
"The fire was at the front door, so they couldn't get out the front door." said Stinsman.
The men used flashlights, and thermal imaging cameras to detect body heat. But it was Bird who felt his way thru the smoke to find 8 and 9 year old brothers, Abalid and Edwin Barahona, unconscious but alive.
"He had the legs and body and we just helped push the kid out the window," remarked Firefighter Greg Rando, who knew they wouldn't be able to get out of the structure thru the kitchen, which was fully involved with fire.
"We all did it, I didn't do it alone, the EMT's and police were right outside the window," Bird said when his friends called him a hero.
The young brothers were injured badly enough that they had to be airlifted to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia where their mother is now by their bedside.
"One of the boys has debris in his lungs trying to pump it out. She's just trying to think about her one son that hasn't woken up yet," said family friend Michelle Sanchez of the victims' mother.
Now this brotherhood of life-saves are hopeful the young brothers will have a second chance.
"I'm praying for the boys my boys are there ages so it hits home," said Evans.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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