Child Badly Burned in Scaling Stove to Flee Sliding House
An 8-year-old girl suffered severe burns climbing over a hot stove that trapped her as her house slid down a slope to the sea during heavy rains Tuesday, authorities said.
The record rainfall in the area--8.37 inches within 24 hours--according to the National Weather Service, ended Tuesday afternoon. It saturated the ground and sent the house slipping slowly down a 15-degree slope until it came to a rest on the beach, one side in the water.
When the house first began moving, the hot wood stove slid toward the little girl and she was forced to jump onto a countertop to avoid being pinned behind the stove, said rescue squad member Skip Johnson. She then had to climb over the stove to escape the house.
A Medevac plane was sent to Yakutat, a town of about 450 people, to fly the child, who was not identified, to an Anchorage hospital, Johnson said.
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