Mother, two toddlers rescued from Milwaukee apartment building

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- A Milwaukee mother and her two toddlers are grateful to be alive -- after a fire broke out in their apartment building near 76th and Brown Deer on Thursday, March 7th.

The emergency call came about 10 a.m. First responders knew they were heading to a stove fire in one apartment of an eight-unit building. The fire was in DeShawn Dorsey's aunt's apartment.

"She go up in the kitchen, try to put the fire out with some water but that didn't do anything but make it rise even more," said Dorsey.

Dorsey tried using a fire extinguisher, but it did not quell the fire which burned his hand. Dorsey and his aunt got out of the building -- as well as others in the building. However, Shavonda Braggs and her one and two-year-olds on the second floor weren't able to leave the normal way.

"I heard the fire alarms go off. People be playing with them and stuff. I start smelling smoke, so I got up and i came into the living room," said Braggs. "I saw smoke coming up in the living room...So I look out the window and see people outside."

"When she came to the window, she yelled was everything okay. And I was like, 'No, it's a fire. Ya'll got to come outside.' And she was like she can't because it was all black and that's when i told her like throw the kids out the window I'm going to try to catch them," said Tia Dorsey.

"We all stood there with our hands in a circle like this and I said, 'Just let them go. Let them go. We won't drop your babies," said Chkaris Dorsey.

In the end, everyone was okay.

The fire department contained the fire to the first-floor apartment. But due to smoke damage, residents won't be able to get back into their apartments for a while.

"I was grateful. I was thankful for them to be out there catching them. Imagine if they wasn't there. I would have had to throw them in the snow," said Braggs. "So I thanked them once I seen them."

Firefighters rescued another 21-year-old woman in the building. She was found sleeping in her apartment on the second floor. She was taken to the hospital and treated for smoke inhalation.