Despite injuries, mother rescues her small children from fire

Published: December 5, 2007 | 6871st good news item since 2003

A young mother jumped almost 15 feet out a window and despite having a broken foot, cuts and bruises, she broke another window and raced up a flight of stairs to rescue her two small children from the fire that destroyed her home Tuesday morning.

Stefanie Kohle, 23, was asleep Tuesday morning in her upstairs bedroom with her 3-year-old daughter, Alexia while her 1-year-old son, Jaron, was sleeping in his crib in the next room at their home at 934 Seborn Avenue, Zanesville.

“She woke up when she said she thought she heard something fall over,” said Zanesville Fire Chief Dave Lacy. “She knew it sounded strange.”
Lacy said the next thing Kohle knew her room was filling with smoke.

“When she tried to run out of the room, the door handle somehow malfunctioned and she couldn’t get the door to open,” Lacy said.

Without thinking of any danger to herself, Kohle broke out a bedroom window and jumped almost 15 feet to the ground.

“She got cut up and bruised and broke her foot,” Lacy said. “But it didn’t stop her from jumping up, breaking another window in a door at the back of the house and racing inside to save her babies.”

Lacy said Kohle got into the home and got her two children out safely.

All three were transported to Good Samaritan Hospital and treated for smoke inhalation, Lacy said.

“She must have been acting on pure adrenaline,” Lacy said. “She had to have been in pain but she was going to get in that house and get those babies.”

Lacy said it took his department about 30 minutes to put out the fire, which appears to have started in the basement. No cause has yet been determined, Lacy said, and it remains under investigation.

The fire caused about $50,000 worth of damage, Lacy said, and the home was insured.

The Red Cross responded with assistance.

There were three smoke detectors in the house, but two of the smoke detectors had no batteries and one had been disconnected, Lacy said.

“This was lucky for them,” Lacy said. “I want people to know smoke alarms save lives.

Published in Heroes
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