Woman who saved baby speaks after power line tragedy left 3 dead
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — In the face of an unbelievably tragic accident that left three people dead, the woman who stepped up as a hero to save a baby’s life is now telling her story.
Majiah Washington grabbed the child, saving their life, despite two adults and a teenager being killed in a mishap involving a live power line hitting the street after winter weather had made road conditions dangerous. Washington spoke at a media event Thursday afternoon.
It all unfolded Wednesday near NE 122nd and Siskiyou St. after a powerline struck a car, with the passengers of the vehicle exiting. Three people were apparently electrocuted and killed but the 9-month-old that was with them survived, thanks to Washington’s quick thinking.
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The 18-year-old Washington, a former Jefferson High School student and current daycare worker, said she saw from her window that there were three people outside after the power line came down. She said a “tiny fire” had been active underneath the car.
Majiah said the people were here next-door neighbors. She said they were actively loading the baby into the car seat when the tree branch fell, taking a power line with it.
A woman was yelling to get the baby out of the car, at which point a man took the baby out from the car.
The man slipped and his foot touched the line, Washington said. The woman then slipped and touched the line, too. Finally, the teenager ran from the apartment complex, slipped on the ice and slid into the power line as well. Washington called 911 and went outside.
“It all happened so fast,” she said.
Washington said “the baby moved his head” so she approached him and grabbed him off of one of the adults who was holding him.
“It’s hard to grasp,” she said, calling the incident “insane.” From when the wire came down to when the baby was in her hands spanned only 20 minutes, she said.
“In the moment, it was like everything was going slow.”
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Washington said she crouched down and grabbed the child from the man’s arms and even touched him at one point. However, it is unclear how the teen did not get electrocuted herself.
“I just thought, ‘I have a nephew myself, I have little brothers, I just hope someone else would do the same thing, I would think that someone else would do the same thing.'”
Neighbors who witnessed the horrific incident and tried to help are now telling their side of the story, with several people living off Siskiyou St. hearing an explosion when the power line came down.
“We heard a loud explosion,” said Daniel Buck, who had heard the noise alongside his wife from inside his home. “We saw the red car over here, the tires were on fire and the power line had fallen on top of it.”
Bleu sparks began flying from the street, according to Ilene Lundell. What she heard next scared her.
“The grandmother was screaming, ‘My babies! My babies!’ That was awful I’ll never forget it,” she said.
“It’s a very hard thing to see,” Buck said. “Our hearts are broken for the family, the little one. We’re praising god hearing that he is alive and doing okay.”
After the power line initially struck the car, setting it on fire, everything happened so quickly as the occupants tried to leave the vehicle, Buck said.
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“The people in the car had run down the sidewalk, I don’t know how they ended up on the power line, maybe they slipped because it was super icy but the adults were on the power line at that point,” he recalled. “For all they knew, their car was on fire, there was smoke coming up and the cable had smashed in their window too.”
“I know everyone says don’t get out of the car but at that time, you’re brain, you see your loved ones, I don’t know what I would do at that point,” added Lundell.
Buck said a neighborhood church called Walk After Christ is now trying to organize something to help the family.
Rick Graves, a spokesperson for Portland Fire and Rescue, said the winter weather has essentially tripled the amount of calls they are receiving per day. He said that on January 3, before the storm, they only saw 375 calls, whereas they’ve received 900-1,000 calls per day on average since the “significant winter event” came rolling through Portland this past weekend.
Graves said when a powerline hits a person’s car, it’s often safer to stay in the vehicle due to the rubber tires protecting the occupants from the electrical current. Despite the tragedy, Graves said the baby who was rescued is “going to be able to thrive.”
Graves clarified all signs point to the three deceased people being electrocuted but that a medical examiner would confirm the cause of death.
Watch the entire press conference above:
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