Infant Tossed Out Window to Escape Middlesex County Fire

Sayreville, NJ - A 1-month-old baby, in his carrier, had to be dropped out of a second-story window after a Sayreville home caught fire Monday afternoon.

The fire broke out shortly before 2 p.m. at 11 Jacobsen Street, according to NJ.com. Four people were trapped on the second floor of the home, including the infant and several young girls between 8 and 10 years old. One young girl had already gotten out and she told police Patrolman Brian Gay, who was among the first to arrive on the scene, that there were still four people trapped in the house -- a mother, her baby and two more young girls.

The woman dropped the 1-month-old boy in a carrier seat out the second-story window, where it was caught by Sayreville fire First Assistant Chief George Gawron, reports NJ.com. Two young girls jumped from the window; Gay caught one and then broke the fall of the other one. The woman then started to climb out a rescue ladder that had been placed against the house, but she fell and was brought to the ground by Gay and Gawron. Neighbor Daniel Hockenjos, a retired Sayreville public works employee, also helped the girls and woman escape.

Miraculously, nobody was seriously injured escaping the blaze, although the woman and the four children were brought to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick as a precaution. Two cats were also safely removed from the first floor of the home.