Girl saves siblings from apartment fire

Herald staff

LYNNWOOD — A baby-sitter’s quick thinking saved the lives of her two charges in an apartment fire Saturday, said Lt. Merlin Halverson of the Lynnwood Fire Department.

The fire, which started when grease ignited on a stove, destroyed an apartment at 19820 68th St. SW in Lynnwood.

The 14-year-old girl was in a rear bedroom with her two siblings, ages 9 and 11, when they heard a popping noise from the front of their apartment. The girl looked out and saw flames in the kitchen. She also noticed that the front of door of the apartment was glowing red hot and decided to take her siblings out a bedroom window instead.

That decision may have saved their lives.

"Had she gathered those children and tried to make a break for the front door, it wouldn’t have worked," Halverson said.

Neighbors reported the fire at 10:56 a.m., then doused most of the blaze using fire extinguishers and garden hoses before firefighters from Lynnwood and Edmonds arrived, Halverson said.

"We pretty much just did a mop-up. I don’t know how they managed it," Halverson said.

The children’s parents did not have renter’s insurance and are being helped by the American Red Cross.