A 15-month-old baby was safely caught by an off-duty firefighter Sunday morning after the mother threw the child out the second-floor window of their burning Hyde Park home, according to fire officials.
The mother then jumped out of the window, the fire department said. She and the baby’s father were taken to the hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
The baby was unharmed and was given to a relative who lives in the Hyde Park home with the parents and child, according to Brian Alkins, a spokesman for the Boston Fire Department.
Alkins said the firefighter, who lives in the front half of the two-unit building, requested anonymity.
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“We’re all extremely proud of the firefighter — he was doing his duty and had to worry about his family as well as the other family,” Alkins said. “That’s a traumatic situation to be in and a difficult decision to have to make ... and he didn’t want any credit for it, he just felt he was doing his job.”
The Boston Fire Department first received calls reporting the two-alarm fire at the home on Norton Street around 7:10 a.m., according to tweets from the department. Seven people were displaced, including the firefighter and his wife and child.
Fire officials are still investigating the cause of the fire, which likely started in the back unit, Alkins said. He said he did not know if the building had working smoke detectors. The blaze caused around $500,000 in damages, he said.
James Macdonnell, who lives next door to the home, said the fire woke him up around 7 a.m. Sunday morning.
“There was this awful electric smell, and I knew something was wrong,” said Macdonnell, 62. He said he looked outside and saw “a really bad wall of flame” next door.
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Macdonnell said he then ran back into his home, screaming “fire,” called 911, and then used his home garden hose to help put out the flames.
The blaze took firefighters about an hour to extinguish. One firefighter was treated for minor injuries on scene.
Anjali Huynh was a Globe intern in 2022.Follow her on Twitter @anjalihuynh.