With Daring Drop, Girl Saves Brother From Flames

By Amy Sara Clark 

A fast-thinking sixth grader saved her 3-year-old brother from smoke and flames by dropping him into the arms of Good Samaritans during an early morning fire on E. 18th Street near Church Avenue.

The two-alarm blaze at the four-story apartment building at 83 E 18th St. injured seven people and destroyed five apartments and Matanza's Grocery Store on the ground floor. 

Janixia Soto woke to the smell of smoke at around 5:30 a.m. The 11-year-old alerted her mother, and while the mother grabbed 3-year-old Walter, Janixia picked up her dog. Then they climbed out onto the third-floor fire escape.

"The smoke was spreading rapidly, so we just had to grab what we needed and get out," Janixia said in an interview in front of her building later that day. 

But they weren't yet safe.

"The side was covered in smoke already, so I climbed down the fire escape to get some fresh air," she said.

Meanwhile, Soto's mom had gone back inside to try to find the family's cat. 

Janixia looked down and saw one of her neighbors yelling up at her.

"She was like, 'Go get your brother, go get your brother.' So I look up, and see he's by himself," she said. 

"I put my dog down and I had to rush back up to get my brother," she said. 

The Hudde Junior High School student grabbed her brother and carried him down the fire escape to one floor above street level. There, she tried to let down the ladder to the sidewalk but it was stuck, she said.

"Not only was it stuck but it was surrounded by smoke," she said. "I was unable to breathe and get it unstuck at the same time."

"We were absolutely trapped," she said.

On the sidewalk, a passerby was raising his arms to catch the boy, but she didn't feel safe dropping him. Then several other men formed a circle, and she dropped her young brother into their outstretched arms.

"I was just crying," she said. "I was thinking in my head, 'I hope this works. I hope this works. I hope this works. So it was like a sigh of relief when they caught him."

At that point firefighters were arriving and Janixia and her mother were helped down fire department ladders, with Janixia still holding the dog, a Maltese/Yorkie mix.  

According to the fire department, the flames appears to have started on the first floor. More than 100 firefighters and 25 fire trucks came to the building to help and the fire was under control at about 6:40 a.m.

Two firefighters and five people living in the building suffered minor injuries. Three of the residents refused medical attention, and the rest were taken to Maimonides Medical Center for treatment. 

All five inhabited apartments in the building have been destroyed. The Red Cross is providing emergency housing to all five households, a total of 15 people. There were also two vacant apartments in the building, a Red Cross spokesman said. 

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, fire officials said.

Matthew Hampton contributed to this report.