11-year-old dies after being rescued from Tacoma house fire

TACOMA, Wash. — An 11-year-old girl rescued from a Tacoma house fire early Sunday has died from her injuries, fire officials announced.

The girl was taken to Harborview Medical Center with serious injuries and died Monday morning.

The fire started early Sunday morning at a Tacoma home on East Clarkston Street near South Lane.

The adults and another child inside made it out safely, but an 11-year-old girl was trapped inside.

The entire situation hit everyone hard, including the firefighters who responded.

According to the assistant fire chief, it is “never easy. After all, what is left of the house shows just how devastating this fire was.”

When they arrived, they had to immediately search the house for missing persons.

Firefighters faced a fully engulfed house when they arrived just after 3:30 a.m.. Neighbors say the fire slowly grew out of control.

“Boy, you know what, there must have been eight fire engines,” said Ingrid Cottey. “And of course, what you see first are the lights.”

Cottey, a nearly 60-year resident here, says that’s what woke her up, but the situation quickly got much worse.

“And Mama over there was screaming, ‘my daughter, my daughter, my daughter is in there,’” said Cottey. “So she apparently was upstairs.”

Firefighters were dismayed by what they encountered.

“Initial report was we had two victims inside,” said Assistant Tacoma Fire Chief Alex Wilsie. “Crews arrived on scene and found heavy fire and smoke.”

Wilsie says they immediately sprang into rescue mode. “We were able to pull out one victim initially in the fire,” he said.

By then, family members realized she was the only one unaccounted for. Neighbors say they were told she is an 11-year-old girl.

Chief Wilsie said the desperate search for her had taken a toll on firefighters.

“We’ll be doing a debrief with everybody afterwards,” the Chief said, “make sure that everybody’s mental health is intact.”

Cox Media Group