Three rescued from second-story unit in Racine after fire breaks out

RACINE (WITI) -- Three people were rescued from a home in Racine after they were able to make their way through a window to escape a raging fire.

The fire broke out on Tuesday evening, May 7th near Roe and Howland in Racine.

"The man just comes and busts through my door, and I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’" a neighbor told FOX6 News.

Sprinting to the back stairs of Jacqueline Jammerson's second floor unit on Roe Avenue, that neighbor discovered a dire situation.

"Soon as I opened the door, I inhaled the biggest puff of smoke ever," the neighbor said.

Fire was spreading from the lower unit to Jammerson's, preventing anyone from exiting via the back steps. Jammerson grabbed her four-year-old son from the bathtub and headed toward the one remaining escape route.

"I opened up that window, climbed onto the balcony porch, up there," Jammerson said.

There, Jammerson, her son and a man from the lower unit sat, until a neighbor spotted them.

Santrell Mosby said he didn't waste time in helping get the little boy to safety.

"They like, hold him over the balcony while we stood up on them little stairs right there and grabbed him down. That was it," Mosby said.

Soon after, Racine fire personnel arrived on the scene.

"They pulled up and calmly pulled off a ladder and brought it up to the occupants that were sitting on the roof and we got them down immediately," Mosby said.

Racine Fire Captain Thomas Benner says two adults took appropriate action by utilizing a second means of exiting the home.

"They get away from the fire, they get away from the smoke, and it’s easier for us to just get a ladder up to them and get them down," Captain Benner said.

Jammerson says it would have been easier still had her unit contained working smoke detectors. She says she contacted her landlord repeatedly about getting them, to no avail.

Damage is estimated at $53,000.



Monitor FOX6 News and FOX6Now.com for updates on this developing story.