A 9-year-old girl trapped by smoke and fire in her third-floor apartment jumped from a balcony into the arms of three Mahwah police officers Tuesday afternoon as flames ripped through the top of a town-home building where she lives with her mother and stepfather, authorities said.
The fire damaged at least 12 apartments in the three-story 24-unit building, which is part of the Society Hill complex on Juniper Lane in Mahwah. Firefighters had the blaze under control by 7 p.m., and no injuries were reported. Police said that the blaze began in a third-floor apartment and fire officials said it spread quickly along the roof. The cause of the fire had not been determined by Tuesday night.
The girl’s mother, Yulyia Doroshenko, said in a telephone interview Tuesday night that her daughter, Sofiya, had a few scratches but was otherwise unharmed. The family checked into a nearby hotel. After Sofiya broke into tears after beginning to talk about the experience, her mother said she was still experiencing a feeling of falling.
“She’s very brave,” Yulyia Doroshenko said. “But she’s also in stress.” She said her daughter was “scared” about jumping at first, but that police officers, who had been the first to arrive on the scene, talked her into it. Sofiya, police said, had been home by herself when the fire began and initially tried to escape down a stairwell but was forced back inside her apartment by heavy smoke.
Police officers meanwhile, rushed into the burning building and knocked on doors to evacuate residents, until they were forced outside by the smoke and the flames. When they got outside, they said, they saw Sofiya, wearing a pink shirt, standing on a balcony.
Lt. Jeffrey Dino implored the girl to jump, and he was then joined by Sgt. Brendan Mullin and Officer Thomas Solimano. All three officers are parents. Sofiya, they said, appeared calm as she climbed over the railing and jumped backwards.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Dino said. “That kid was calm and in control. That’s the bravest little kid I’ve ever seen. I thought we were going to have a hard time convincing her. She put a lot of faith in us.”
Mullin said he was worried there wasn’t enough time to wait for the Fire Department to arrive. He said the girl didn’t hesitate when she jumped, didn’t cry, and had the presence of mind to let them know that she believed no one else was in the building.
Township Police Chief James Batelli said that the fire appeared to have begun in a third-floor apartment occupied by an elderly woman who lives across from the Doroshenkos.
Township Fire Chief Tom Loreto said there was heavy fire on a third-floor balcony when he pulled up to the scene, and that it spread quickly, trapped by “a few void spaces.” He said firefighters appeared to have the blaze under control at 5 p.m. but it flared up again about an hour later before it was finally knocked down by 7 p.m.
Batelli said that some of the building’s firewalls did not go through the attic all the way to the roof, and that there was no sprinkler system installed. Firefighters from Ramsey, Wyckoff and Suffern, N.Y., were at the scene to provide assistance, Batelli said.
John Lane, the township building manager, said sprinkler systems were not required when the building was constructed in 1988. He also said a firewall made of fire-retardant Sheetrock that separates two parts of the building “worked out very well” by keeping the blaze from spreading. Still, he determined that all 24 units in the building should be evacuated.
“Right now the entire building is not going to be occupied,” he said. “We’ll probably come back in the morning and make a determination.”