A Roslindale man is being hailed as a hero after helping his neighbors successfully escape an early morning fire at a residential building in the Massachusetts neighborhood.
According to the Boston Fire Department, which initially responded to a fire on Delford Street in Roslindale shortly after midnight, the neighbor set up a mattress outside of a second floor window of the residence which a mother and her two children were forced to jump out of. According to the fire department, the man caught a 5-year-old from the second floor window after the mother dropped the child down for him to catch.
Clifford Saint Jean said he woke up to the sound of the fire around midnight. He said he quickly put a mattress on the ground and called for the mother to drop her 5-year-old from the second floor.
"Come down, come down," he said he called to them.
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In all, nine residents were displaced from the building, fire officials said, including five adults and four children. Damage to the building was estimated at around $1 million. Siding on an adjacent building was also melted, officials said.
“It’s hard to see that anything would be able to be recovered," neighbor Isaac Blodgett said. "Hope they were OK.”
Aguiles Romeus, another neighbor and a mother of two, said the family was lucky to get out safely.
“You’ve got your life, got your kids. You always want to protect them. Now you're in the fire. You just don't know what's going to happen in the next minute," she said.
The Red Cross of Massachusetts is assiting those displaced with finding new housing, officials said.
Two firefighters were transported to an area hospital by Boston EMS with minor injuries suffered battling the blaze, officials said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
