Toddler killed in Beersheba apartment fire, girl leaps from balcony to safety

An apartment fire in Beersheba Sunday killed a 2-year-old girl, left a 4-year-old boy critically injured and saw an 8-year-old girl make a dramatic leap to safety.

The fire engulfed an eighth-story apartment in the southern city. By the time firefighters managed to pull two of the children from the fire, the 2-year-old girl and four-year-old boy both were in critical condition, according to paramedics.

The girl died after being rushed to a local hospital and the boy remains in critical condition in Soroka Medical Center, Hebrew media reported.

Video showed the 8-year-old girl escaping the blaze by standing on a balcony, where neighbors a few floors below saw her, held out a bedsheet, and called for her to leap into the sheet.

The girl is seen on footage hesitating before leaping to safety.

She and a six-month old brother also rescued from the fire were being taken to the hospital with light injuries.

The mother told police she was on another floor when the blaze broke out in the dining room. Firefighters are still investigating the cause of the fire, which may be a power outlet or an air-conditioning system, though they haven’t ruled out the possibility that the children were playing with matches.

“The shift commander asked to go upstairs. We went into one of the bedrooms which two children’s beds. In one of them we found a little girl and afterwards we discovered a child under the bed,” said Staff Sergeant Aharon Malka. “There was zero visibility, so we used the flashlights and felt around to located them.”