Family Forced To Jump From Second Floor Window In Corona, Queens Fire
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Fourteen people were injured in a fire that forced residents to jump to safety in Corona, Queens on Sunday morning.
According to the FDNY, the fire broke out in a basement of a building on Waldron Street in the Corona section at around 10 a.m.
"Their faces, I can't get it out of my head," Romanita Rosa told CBS2's Erin Logan.
Rosa did everything she could to keep her composure after smelling and seeing black smoke in her second flood apartment. She screamed for help, worried about her two daughters, niece and nephew.
"I was not just going to sit there and watch them go," she said.
Rosa said once her daughters made it out of the building, they made their way over to an alley, where they found a mattress and handed it over to their super who took over from there.
On the scene, all the super had to say was that he placed the mattress the below the family's second floor window. One by one, she threw the remaining children out the opening, and the super caught them below.
"They actually landed on my neighbor, one did, which the mattress just helped the fall, and another could land on the super. So they landed on both," Rosa said. "Me and my nephew Jacob were the ones that went down the ladder."
Rosa said Jacob deserves a high-five for being brave.
"I wanted the girls to go out first because I wanted them to be safe," he said.
Late Sunday night, the family was safe and sound inside a hotel, happy to have each other.
"I feel good and thankful the fire department came and got there early," Jacob said.
They're also thankful for their neighbors and happy to hear the two people who were critically hurt in the fire are expected to be OK..
An investigation is ongoing.
