Blaze Kills 3 Children; Firefighters Climb Through Flames to Rescue 2
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HOLYOKE, Mass. — A fire that raced through an apartment house Tuesday killed three children, but two were saved when firefighters climbed through flames to pluck them from a window.
“I’ve never seen anything as brave,” Deputy Chief Douglas Moran said of Lt. Chris Reynolds, the first up the ladder. “From now on I am calling him Sir .”
Five families lived in the five-story building, and at least 19 people were inside when the blaze broke out before 7 a.m. in this Connecticut River mill city. Arson investigators suspect that children playing with a lighter started it.
Reynolds, followed by firefighter Francis Knightly, scrambled up a ladder. As they passed the fourth floor, flames burst from a window and swept over their ladder, Moran said.
“But they kept on going,” Moran said. “I don’t know how any of them got off that ladder without being killed.”
A teen-ager dangled the baby by one arm and passed it to Reynolds, who swung the child back to Knightly. The youth climbed down the ladder.
All survived, officials said. Reynolds and Knightly were uninjured.
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