A heroic grandmother risked her life to save her 5-year-old granddaughter from a torrid fire inside their apartment in Hampton, Georgia, by jumping from a second-floor window. She’s being praised for her intrepidity.
Jacqueline Roberts, 52, now sits in her Grady Memorial Hospital room recovering from two broken ankles and arm bruises, grateful she and her granddaughter get to live to see another day.
“I thank God when the pain eats me and I want to scream and cry. I remember I’m not in a pine box. I’m in the hospital. I’ll be OK,” Roberts told 11Alive. “Broken bones can be fixed but you cannot come back from being dead.”
The fire erupted a little after 4 p.m. on March 27. Roberts’ family woke her up to warn her of the fire. Roberts said her daughter grabbed her two grandchildren and swiftly descended 17 stairs. But her 5-year-old granddaughter, Autumn, ran back upstairs.
Roberts lingered behind to grab her identification card and other important items. She recalled hearing her daughter yell, “Mommy, get Autumn, get Autumn.”
“If I had gone downstairs with my daughter, my granddaughter would have been in the fire,” she said, getting emotional. “She would have perished.”
Roberts spotted a terrified Autumn in her son’s doorway.
“She said, ‘Grandma, get me grandma, get me grandma, don’t leave me. Save me,’” the 52-year-old explained.
It was too late for the two to escape out the front. Their only option was a 15-foot jump out of the bedroom window.
“By this time, the smoke is coming now,” she said. “It’s getting a little more dangerous. She’s coughing, I’m coughing,” Roberts explained.
She picked up Autumn and held her out of the window by her wrists, slowly lowering her to get the child as close to the ground as possible.
“I kind of bent over on my window to where the front of my stomach and my pelvic bone were over [the windowsill],” she said. “When I dropped her she said, ‘Ouch’ and then said, ‘I’m OK grandma.’ Then I said, ‘OK, you have to move now so grandma can jump.’”
Roberts became grateful after noticing it was raining, realizing it would soften the grassy area below her.
She survived the jump but didn’t feel her bones break. She only noticed her body’s weird positioning.
“I’m on the floor laying down and one foot is going this way, and the other foot is going this way, and my body is one way,” she recalled.
Autumn escaped with only minor scars thanks to her hero, who couldn’t believe she survived the ordeal.
“I had to pinch myself to make sure I am alive,” Roberts said. “Because at that time the pain of my broken ankles did not set in. I [was] in shock.”
The grandmother was transported to the hospital and underwent surgery on her broken ankles.
Roberts loves her two grandchildren dearly and would easily risk her life for theirs.
“I wasn’t even thinking about myself, honestly. It was to get her out because she’s only 5 years old. I’m 52, I’ve lived life and she didn’t start to experience life,”
The family learned that the fire started because of something electrical. Unfortunately, the fire engulfed many of their valuables. But Roberts is happy to be alive after coming from a situation that could’ve quickly taken their lives, and she thanks God for that.
“I believe in the power of God and the reason why I was calm is because he was there with me. Because the calmness came over me,” Roberts said.
A GoFundMe is up to help the family cover medical expenses.
