Mom lowers family to safety using bed sheet in devastating Philly fire: 'I had to get them out'
PHILADELPHIA - A mother and Philadelphia police officer used a bed sheet to lower her children and sister from a second floor bedroom window when her house went up in flames over the weekend.
Elauda Seawright, an officer in Philadelphia's 16th district, said she was awoken at her Mount Airy home early Saturday morning by the smell and saw smoke in the hallway.
"I immediately took the sheet off my bed, wrapped it around my arm, lowered my youngest daughter first, then I lowered my oldest daughter," Seawright told FOX 29's Shawnette Wilson.
As she was lowering her sister who has multiple sclerosis, Seawright said the smoke began to overpower her, and she dropped the sheet, plunging her sister to the ground.
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"I actually released the cloth that I had in my hand, my sister fell, I could hear her screaming in pain," Seawright said.
Seawright then saved herself, leaping from the second story window about 20–30 feet high. She suffered a sprained ankle, but her natural police instincts caused her to keep saving people.
"My next door neighbors are in their late-70s, my next door neighbor beside them is handicapped, I had to get them out," Seawright said.
Everyone was accounted for in the devastating fire that totaled the Seeawright's home and everything inside. What sparked the fire is still under investigation.
A co-worker started a GoFundMe to help Seawright's family get back on their feet.