Stranger who helped Spokane’s mother save her children from a house fire recalls events | news

SPOKANE- A Spokane mother is recovering and her children are fortunately safe thanks to the heroic act of a complete stranger.

On Saturday, Linda Juitt and her two sons found themselves on a third floor balcony when a fire destroyed their apartment in northern Spokane. They had caught flames outside, with no way out and no way down.

Down on the ground, retired Air Force veteran Julio Perez watched everything play out and quickly learned how dire the situation was.

“One of the guys I ran into said hey, there are two kids in the back,” said Perez. He had moved around, heard the commotion, and ran towards the smoke.

Then Julio and Linda knew that the only way to be safe was to descend directly, and they both knew what had to happen next.

“I had a couple of guys down there and thought, ‘Can you catch my kids?'” Linda told us on Sunday.

“I looked up and said, ‘I’m not going to let anything happen to your children,'” says Perez.

One by one, Linda dropped her two boys into the safe and calm hands of this stranger-turned hero.

“They landed right in my hands, I made sure they didn’t fall.” Perez says.

While the two boys were unharmed, Linda was not so lucky. She is recovering in the hospital with multiple fractures that she sustained when she also jumped to dodge the fire. Even so, she is grateful that her family, including her German Shepherd, whom firefighters rescued in just a few minutes, are safe.

“I lost absolutely everything in the fire, but all of that stuff is replaceable,” says Linda. “My children, my dog ​​and I are irreplaceable. So even though this all happened, I’m just so grateful to be alive. “

Juitt and her boys lost all their belongings in the fire. A fundraiser is currently running to raise money for them and you can find more information about it by clicking here.

Perez called the heartbreaking moment an out of body experience.

“Something, a higher power was in control of me,” he says.