2-year-old girl dies in Be'er Sheva fire
Blaze erupts in 8-story residential building; mother moderately wounded, boy aged 4 in critical condition; girl jumps from balcony to save her life as flames consume her apartment.
A 4-year-old girl was pronounced dead Sunday evening after being extracted from a fire that broke out in an eight-story residential building in Be'er Sheva. The girl, along with her 3-year-old brother who is still in critical condition, were rescued from the blaze, with Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics attempting to resuscitate the girl and later taking the two to the city's Soroka Hospital.
The pair's mother, a woman in her thirties, and their 8-year-old sister were also taken to the hospital having suffering bruises and smoke inhalation.
The fire broke out on the building's seventh floor. The family's 8-year-old was filmed jumping from a balcony to save herself from the inferno. Firefighting teams have achieved partial control over the flames.
"I was on the line with the mother. I heard shouting but didn't know what it was about. When I realized it was a fire, I had my son call the fire department," the mother's friend said. "She was on the line with me. She kept going on about not being able to find two of her children. I told her I'll speak to the firefighters and tell them two are missing."
Fireman Officer Eli Peretz, commander of the Negev district's fire department, said that "when firefighters went upstairs they saw a little girl jumping from the ninth to the eighth floor. Before entering the apartment, they attempted to receive information from the mother, who was in bad shape. When they entered the apartment, firefighters found a young girl in the living room and extricated her."
Senior MDA paramedic Yaron Barel added, "En route to the incident I could see thick smoke and flame coming out of the apartment. Near the entrance to the building we found a woman of about 30 and a child of about 10, both conscious with signs of smoke inhalation with the girl suffering a facial contusion as a result of falling while escaping.
"The woman kept shouting about there being a baby in the house and fire teams on the scene entered the burning apartment and extracted an unconscious girl, who was not breathing and did not have a pulse.
"We gave her initial medical attention in the field and attempted to revive her, with her situation deemed to be critical."
The fire team's commander Aharon Malka said, "We reached the apartment along with other firefighters. The watch commander had us go up to the last floor to let smoke out. We entered one of the bedrooms and scanned it, finding two children's beds. We found a small girl in the bed and another young boy under the other bed. Visibility was close to nil. We used flashlights and feeling to locate them."
