Good Samaritans save mother and child from apartment fire

Fire 1015 Larin Avenue May1815-02 Edited — Smoke pours from the second storey window of this triplex on Larin Avenue on May 18, 2015 as police and firefighters tend to a woman, left, who jumped from the window. (Cornwall Newswatch/Bill Kingston)

CORNWALL – A couple of quick-thinking men are credited with saving a woman and child from a burning triplex Monday night.

The fire at 1015-1017 Larin Avenue started just after 11 p.m. as flames tore up the side of the building, melting the siding and scorching the staircase to an upstairs apartment.

Cameron Bennett, 19, tells Cornwall Newswatch he was heading home when he saw the flames and decided to see what was happening.

He says, when he arrived on the scene, a man who works for the City of Cornwall shouted for him to come help.

“We ran over and we helped them out of the house in a way. Once we got there, there was already somebody (that) jumped out of the window. We got the baby and the mom out of the house,” Bennett told Cornwall Newswatch.

The fire victims were able to escape through a second floor window with the aid of the two men who were able to get close by getting on a tiny porch on the first floor of the building.

The woman who jumped from the second-storey window was being stabilized at the scene for a serious knee injury before being taken by paramedics in an ambulance.

The mother was also treated by paramedics while the baby, believed to be around 12-18 months, was taken to hospital for observation.