MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — Neighbors in Mount Vernon are being praised for saving young kids from a burning home.
The fire sparked on Friday, June 3, at the Skagit Valley Mobile Manor.
“It was like this big but the flames were so, so hot,” said 8-year-old Archibaldo.
Archibaldo was home alone with his sisters when a fire quickly burned toward them from outside.
“We heard popping things outside and then the fire started outside right by the front door. And then like, smoke was coming inside of our house,” he explained.
Archibaldo says he quickly realized it was too late to escape out the front door.
“I told my sister to get in the room so we can be safe to ask for some help,” he said.
He said the home was filled with smoke. Nearby neighbors saw the kids banging on the front window and sprung into action.
“They came and they broke the window and took the kids out,” said Aurelio Ortiz, Archibaldo’s father.
Ortiz told KIRO 7 the kids were pulled out of the home through the front window, before the flames engulfed everything.
“All the stuff is, nothing saved. Everything cleared. Now I have to start from zero,” Ortiz explained.
He believes the fire sparked outside, burning furniture and his truck before spreading to the house.
“All the (things are) easy to burn, you know?” Ortiz said. “It’s so hot that the mattress, the frame, the everything. It took less than 4 minutes.”
Despite the destruction, he’s just grateful his kids got out safely.
“Everything is material, everything we can fix it, we can restart, you know. But the important (thing is) my kids,” said Ortiz.
Ortiz said it will take about a year to rebuild their home.
If you’d like to help the Ortiz family, click here for the GoFundMe.
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