An Atlanta fire captain said he was doing what he needed to do when he gave up his own mask to help a mother escape from the second floor of a burning apartment building.
“I had to do everything I could to get the mother out of the structure,” Atlanta fire Capt. Borgen Johnson told Channel 2 Action News. “Because, you know, I have kids and a wife myself. That’s all I thought about.”
Friday’s fire consumed the first floor of the Pavillion Place Apartments on Cleveland Avenue, AJC.com previously reported. The mother, a small child and a baby were trapped inside their apartment when fire crews arrived about 1:30 a.m.
RELATED: Firefighter lends mask to mom escaping burning apartment with young children
The mother, Tranisha Wilcox, previously told AJC.com she woke up to the sound of fire alarms and the smell of smoke.
“I got up and ran to the front door, and when I opened it, smoke hit me in the face,” she said.
Wilcox said she closed the door and took her 7-year-old and 4-month-old sons to her bedroom.
She banged her hand on a small window in her closet to signal to firefighters that she was inside the apartment.
“The window was small where they were trying to come out, so he had to break the window, and then he had to climb through the window to get in there,” battalion Chief Don Cole told Channel 2 from the scene.
Firefighter Dustin Sikes, who had just finished training to join the department the month prior, was waiting to carry the children to safety, he told Channel 2.
“I go up the ladder — smoke,” he said. “The mother hands me the baby. I put him here, and the other child here, and just go down the ladder.”
After passing her children to fire crews, Wilcox needed help getting out of the burning building. Johnson said Wilcox wasn’t sure if she would make it out alive.
“She was saying that she couldn’t breathe,” he told Channel 2. “She was like, ‘I feel like I’m going to die.’”
He said he knew he had to do everything he could to get her out. So, he gave her his mask, he said.
Johnson helped her out the front door and down a flight of stairs.
“Well, I got as low as I possibly could, and we went through the smoke,” he said. “And the breath of fresh air was actually seeing the firefighters at the door and flashlights and I’m like, ‘We’re fine now. We’re going the right way.’”
Wilcox, her children and Johnson were taken to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Wilcox said the fire left her with smoke and water damage throughout her apartment. Her family has set up a GoFundMe page to help with the costs of repairs.
In other news:
About the Author
