ST. LOUIS (AP) — A “great collaborative effort” helped save the lives of two small children in a massive blaze at an apartment building in St. Louis, a fire official said Wednesday.
The fire was reported around 5 a.m. on the second floor of a three-story apartment building near O’Fallon Park. Fire officials initially said several people were trapped.
Firefighters heard a noise and found a toddler and a 7-month-old behind a closed bedroom door, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. A firefighter carried out the toddler and the captain handed off the infant to a police officer who had climbed a ladder to a second story window, authorities said.
“It’s just a great collaborative effort,” St. Louis Fire Department spokesman Garon Mosby said. “It’s not in the training manual, but we get it done.”
During the blaze, an adult woman jumped from a second story window. The children were treated at a hospital for smoke inhalation and the woman was treated for inhalation, burns and the injuries from the fall. Details about their conditions were not immediately available.
Mosby said the children were found behind a closed door, which he said probably saved their lives by preventing the fire from getting to them.
Four others in another apartment unit were hospitalized as a precaution.