Mother drops 2 children to safety from fire

Neighbor helped family trapped in 3d-floor residence

CLINTON - Trapped by a fire engulfing their third-floor apartment, a mother dropped her two children to a neighbor before she was rescued by firefighters.

Kristy Laperle-O'Leary was being treated yesterday at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester for injuries suffered in the fire at 121-123 Sterling St. Fire Chief Richard J. Hart said her two children, ages 3 and 7, were not injured.

The mother dropped the children out a window to second-floor tenant David Kobus, who was in back of the house, Hart said.

Hart said the fire was reported about 5:45 a.m. Heavy fire was blowing out of the left side of the top floor when firefighters arrived, he said. Kobus had tried to make his way to the third floor but was driven back by the flames.

"He backed out and then heard the woman yelling," Hart said.

Kobus then went behind the house, where the children were dropped to him. The fire chief said firefighters then put an aerial ladder up to the house from an alley and rescued the mother.

Lynne Morrison, a neighbor who reported the fire, said the blaze woke her. "I was in a dead sleep. There was a pop, and it shook my house," she said.

When she went out, she said, a woman from the second floor was outside and flames were coming from the building. She said she heard a woman screaming for help. Morrison said at one point before the trapped woman was rescued, she was prepared to jump. "I said to her, 'They're coming. They're coming. Hold on,' " she said. "I'll never forget her screaming."

Two cats and a dog are believed to have died in the fire.

Hart said two firefighters sustained minor injuries and a police officer suffered a puncture wound to his hand.

Firefighters had the blaze under control in about 30 minutes, Hart said. The neighboring house had some of its plastic siding melted off by the heat.

Hart said the top floor was destroyed and the second floor had severe damage. The cause of the fire was under investigation, he said.