VANCOUVER, WA (KPTV) -
Fire crews say a teenager rescued a small child from the roof of a Vancouver apartment complex minutes after his toddler brother fell more than 20 feet off the same roof.
Vancouver Fire Department Capt. Scott Willis said firefighters were called to the Prairie View Apartments at Northeast 126th Avenue and Northeast 99th Street at about 4:30 Sunday evening.
Clark County Deputies say the boys father had just put his sons down for a nap, when his 2-year-old son somehow managed to move their crib up next to the window.
Deputies say the boys crawled out through a damaged screen and onto the roof, and the 2-year-old fell from the 3rd story, to the ground.
"We just saw this white flash and heard this thud," said witness Corinne Sims. We quickly realized it was the boy who fell to the ground and rushed over."
The child landed in a patch of bark in a flowerbed. Willis said the child was conscious and breathing but lethargic when firefighters and medics arrived at the apartments.
The child was taken by ambulance to Southwest Washington Medical Center. He is expected to be ok.
A group of kids were playing football nearby when the child fell. Willis said one of the teens, Damon Davenport, spotted the boys 18-month-old brother on the same roof and rushed upstairs to try and get the child down.
"I was feeling like I was a brave guy trying to do the right thing," said 13-year-old Damon Davenport.
Davenport kicked out the window screen and crawled on the roof through a window of one of the apartments and pulled the child to safety.
Deputies credit Davenport for quite possibly saving the boys life.
"I said oh my gosh, that just happened, I just saved a baby from falling off a roof," said Davenport. "Everyone told me I was the family's hero."
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