An Oregon baby who miraculously survived a downed power line that electrocuted his parents and uncle was saved by a selfless 18-year-old who bent down to grab the child from his mortally wounded father’s chest.
Majiah Washington jumped into action Wednesday when he saw lightning outside his Portland home after a red SUV became entangled in a power line snapped by a fallen tree branch.
The child’s parents had put their 9-month-old baby in his car seat when the tragic bedlam began.
The mother yelled at her boyfriend to grab the child and ran away as a fire started under the car.
But thick sheets of ice from a powerful winter storm caused the father, identified as Nash, to slip with the baby in his arms and touch a live wire, Washington said. Then the child’s mother, who was six months pregnant, and his 15-year-old brother were killed in the same way.
Washington was on the phone with first responders as the trio lay on the ground when he saw the baby’s head move.
Majiah Washington speaks during a news conference at Portland Fire & Rescue headquarters Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Portland, Ore. AP
“Everything happened so fast,” he said during a Thursday press conference streamed by KOIN.
He decided to make a daring rescue instead of waiting for emergency personnel. The teenager said he bent down and used his hands to break any fall as he snarled at the endangered child.
Washington, a daycare worker, immediately grabbed the baby and brought him back to safety. Although Washington said he came into contact with his father’s chest, he was not surprised.
The red SUV was entangled in a power line that was snapped by a fallen tree branch. KPTV Washington, a day care worker, quickly grabbed the baby and brought him back to safety. KPTV
“I didn’t think, ‘Oh, I could get electrocuted,'” he said. “I was more like, ‘I have to take this baby.'”
Portland Fire and Rescue spokesman Rick Graves called Washington brave but admitted he doesn’t understand how he and the baby didn’t get electrocuted.
He said the baby survived, in part, “because of the heroic actions of members of our community.” He is fine, the official added.
Ta-Ron Briggs, 15, was shocked to death during the terrifying incident. The Taj Briggs family was killed by downed power lines in Portland. Facebook
“I just thought I had my own niece, I had a little brother,” Washington explained. “I want someone to do the same.”
Washington neighbor Ronald Briggs told television station KGW that the baby’s mother, his 21-year-old daughter, came to his house to use the internet after the baby was out.
He saw the pair slide to their deaths and shouted to his 15-year-old son, Ta-Ron Briggs, to stay away, but he too slipped and was fatally shocked.
“I have six children. I lost two of them in one day,” Briggs said.
Snow, freezing rain, ice and bitterly cold temperatures in the Pacific Northwest have caused at least 10 deaths in Oregon in recent days.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
