The officer climbs onto a balcony, smashes a glass door and pulls the children out.
By Associated Press
Published March 25, 2004
MIAMI - A police officer rescued two children from a fire Wednesday by climbing onto their second-floor balcony and breaking into their burning apartment.
Miami-Dade Officer Abraham Fernandez, 26, rescued a 1-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl, who had been left alone by their mother. All were treated for smoke inhalation.
Fernandez said he and other officers tried to get into the apartment after the fire began about 1:30 a.m., but its door was locked. The officers got a neighbor to let them in his apartment, and Fernandez went out on the balcony. He climbed along the railing to the burning apartment's balcony.
He said he used his baton to break the sliding-glass doors. "When I shattered the glass, I heard crying," he said.
Fernandez said he saw the boy in a playpen nearby, grabbed him and passed him to the neighbor. Still hearing crying inside the apartment, he had trouble finding the other child.
"It was so dark and black that I couldn't see anything," Fernandez said.
Feeling around the apartment, he found the girl and rushed her outside. The fire was put out.
Fernandez said afterward he was thankful the children were safe. "I have a 1-year-old," he said.
The mother was being questioned by child exploitation investigators, police said.
