Fire Rescue News - Atlantic City woman to be honored for saving children from fire
ATLANTIC CITY - Richelle Hall lost her 3-year-old daughter in a drowning accident 11 years ago, but her actions earlier this week saved another mother from suffering the pain of losing a child, officials said Friday.
Hall, 41, said she was taking her 10-year-old son, Darren Smiley, to a pediatrician's office on Brighton Avenue on Tuesday afternoon and was about to....Continue Reading
open her car door when she saw flames coming out of a building. A 6-year-old boy stood in the doorway, crying that his brother and sister were still inside.
After calling 911, Hall said she ran up the steps and pulled two small children from the smoke-filled room. The boy thought another sister might still be trapped inside, but it turned out she made it downstairs on her own, she said.
"I passed them down to Darren, and he put them in my car and they were sitting there waiting for the police to get there," Hall said.
Her quick action may well have saved the children's lives, Atlantic City Fire Chief Dennis Brooks said Friday.
The battalion chief who was first to respond to the scene reported that he saw "this woman was coming out of the building with these children" and putting them in her car, Brooks said.
The Fire Department will nominate Hall for a civilian hero award, Brooks said.
The fire, reported at 4:54 p.m. Tuesday, displaced four people and caused 16 others to be evacuated from the four-story building, Brooks said at the time. It apparently started in a mattress in a bedroom on the fourth floor.
Someone had opened the window on the fourth floor, where the fire started, allowing the heavy smoke to escape from the bedroom, Brooks said Friday. Firefighters usually recommend that windows not be opened in case of fire, because that usually allows air to fuel the flames.
But, Brooks said, "had the window been closed, those kids probably would have died."
Hall, who works as an assistant manager at the Dress Barn at The Walk retail outlets, said her company honored her Friday with a cake and roses and took her picture for the company magazine.
But she did not do it to become a hero, even though she's being feted as one now, Hall said. She was just thankful the two young children were saved and another mother did not have to grieve.
In a way, maybe it was her daughter's spirit that guided her, Hall said.
"It seems that God put me there at the right time," she said.
Contact Elaine Rose: 609-272-7215 ERose@pressofac.com
