A Garland mother threw her daughter out of a second- story window and into the hands of neighbors in a desperate attempt to save her life.
A fire erupted inside the garage of Deria Adebowale's home in the 1200 block Spanish Moss while she was asleep in her second-floor bedroom. Her 7-year-old daughter was upstairs with her.
Her 12-year-old son, who was downstairs when the fire started, ran out the front door.
Neighbors heard him screaming for help.
"I saw the son out there. He said, 'My mommy's in the house," said Francis Ibeh, a neighbor and friend of the family.
Adebowale later told Ibeh she woke up to smoke entering her bedroom.
"The smoke consumed her," Ibeh said. "She couldn't get through. The only alternative -- she opened the window and that was the only way to come out from."
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By then, some 20 neighbors had come out of their homes to try to help.
"The neighbors told her to give the girl to them so they can catch her," said Ramandeep Kaur, a next-door neighbor. "I think because of the fire, it was getting very hot up there where they were, so she threw the girl down, and they caught the girl."
The girl was crying and scared but was not hurt.
Firefighters had arrived, but were looking for a fire hydrant. Adebowale began to panic as she waited for firefighters to save her.
"She was saying, 'I cannot breath! I cannot breathe!'" Ibeh said. "And she was hanging out the window."
"Everybody was telling her not to jump from the window, but she did," Kaur said.
Neighbors tried to break her fall. She broke her ankle and was taken to a hospital but was otherwise in good health.
Neighbors said it was nothing short of a miracle.
"I would say it's miracle because it happened when people are around because she works (at) night," Ibeh said. "If the kids weren't home -- she was in deep sleep, you know -- she would have been consumed by fire."
The Garland Fire Department has not yet released the cause of the fire.
