18-year-old lauded after saving infant whose family had been electrocuted during Oregon winter storm
Portland teen Majiah Washington said she opened her blinds after seeing a flash outside and noticed a red SUV with a fallen power line on top of it.
A Portland teenager is receiving praise for her heroic actions after she saved a baby boy whose family was electrocuted to death during a winter storm Wednesday.
According to People, Majiah Washington, 18, rescued the nine-month-old once she’d witnessed a fallen power line land on top of the family’s SUV, killing the infant’s mother, father and 15-year-old uncle.
Portland Fire & Rescue Department spokesman Rick Graves commended Washington for her deeds.
“We do have, fortunately, with us a toddler that is going to be able to thrive and do what they possibly can as they move forward,” said Graves. “And they are here, in part, because of the heroic acts of a member of our community.”
The department said in a news release that the baby was “found to be unaffected by the situation” and transported to a local hospital.
People reported that Ronald Briggs, Washington’s neighbor, told the Associated Press his 21-year-old daughter, who was six months pregnant, came over to use the internet after hers went out. The incident claimed the lives of both his daughter and his son, Ta’Ron Briggs.
“I told him, ‘Don’t go down there — try to get away from them.’ And he slid, and he touched the water, and he, and he died too,” said Briggs. “I have six kids. I lost two of them in one day.”
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“It just hurt,” he added, People reported. “Being a good father cannot solve this right now.”
Portland Fire & Rescue was called to the scene of a “possible car fire” on Wednesday just before 11:45 a.m. in the Russel Neighborhood, near the NE 122 and NE Siskiyou intersection.
While en route to the scene, the department reported that they received information from the dispatch center about a person on fire and a power line down in the street, and “another hysterical caller on this says 4 patients here including a baby with someone on fire, three people laying in the street unconscious.”
“He was laying on his chest to the side, and I just saw him move his head,” Washington said, sharing that she was concerned about the baby.
“I just thought, I have a nephew myself, I have little brothers; I would want somebody to do the same thing, I would hope somebody would do the same thing,” she added, People reported. “I’m just thinking that this is something, if you see a baby, who’s not going to go save a baby? But I guess everybody doesn’t think about it like that.”
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