Brockton woman, three children rescued by firefighters: ‘We got out safely, thank God’

BROCKTON, Mass. — A frightening start to the morning ended safely for a Brockton woman, her daughter and two other young relatives.

Around 9:15 a.m. firefighters were called to Warren Avenue after being alerted by an alarm system. They arrived to find four people trapped on the third floor of the three-story building.

“I opened the back door and I noticed there was smoke everywhere,” said Michena Augustin, a mother who lives on the third floor.

Augustin, who was home with her niece, nephew and daughter said she was preparing to give one of the children a shower when she smelled something strange; smoke was filling their apartment from one of the lower levels of the building.

She told the three children to get dressed quickly and got them to a window.

“It was smoky, real smoke, [they] couldn’t see anything,” said Lt. Jim DuBeau, one of the first firefighters to arrive.

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“I was freaking out,” Augustin told Boston 25 News.

She screamed for help and, soon after, firefighter Cory Lacey was on his way with a ladder.

“We saw the children hanging out the window with mom,” Lacey explained. “So we just went to work.”

Lacey said he tried his best to reassure everyone and proceeded to take all four people out one at a time, with Augustin going last.

“We got out safely, thank God,” Augustin said, relieved.

Lacey said any member of the fire department would have done what he did. He was lucky, he said, to have been in position to rescue the family.

“It feels good, it makes you feel great,” he said. “I’m not going to pretend that it doesn’t.”

One firefighter hurt one of their hands, but will be okay, according to Deputy Chief Kevin Galligan.

“The actions of all the members responding, from the first company to arrive, stretching the line, putting water on the fire, that’s the best way to protect the people who were up above, to the members of the ladder companies who did as they were trained to do, put up the ladder effectively, quickly, safely rescue four people out of the windows,” Deputy Chief Galligan said.

The fire’s cause is being investigated, but firefighters believe it was accidental and began in the basement.

Cox Media Group