Mother Drops Three Children to Safety as House Fire Kills Eight

A mother pitched her three young children from the second floor of a burning house, then leaped to the ground with her 1-year-old son in her arms during a blaze early Saturday that killed eight people, including five children, authorities said.

“I really can’t believe I threw them out,” said Abigail Patton, 23, who was in good condition at Hennepin County Medical Center with a broken wrist and dislocated hip. “I was kind of pitching them out so they would hit the grass and leaves” instead of the sidewalk directly below the window.

‘Thank God We’re Living’

“I just thank God we’re living, and my babies are safe and sound,” Patton said from her hospital bed.

Patton and her four children, ages 1 to 6, were the only occupants of the second floor of the duplex. All eight who died in the blaze, the worst in Minneapolis in more than 10 years, were sleeping on the main floor. Seven people were injured.

Two of Patton’s children suffered broken wrists in the fall, and the other two were unhurt.

Patton said she awoke shortly after 1 a.m. to check on her children, who were all sleeping in her bedroom. She noticed smoke and then ran to the front and back doors where she saw flames.

“I knew I couldn’t go out the front way or out the back,” she said. “I’m glad I didn’t panic. I thought: ‘Don’t panic, just get your babies out.’ ”

A neighbor, Mavis Hollingsworth, said she was awakened by what sounded like an explosion or a window breaking. She said she then heard a woman screaming from the alley.

“She was saying, ‘Somebody call! Somebody call!’ I heard the screaming and called 911,” Hollingsworth said.

Fire officials said the victims probably died of smoke inhalation. The cause of the fire had not been determined.