Medford firefighters rescue mom, child

‘I don’t know how we would have gotten out if they weren’t there . ... It was definitely scary. It’s emotional. It’s overwhelming.’

MEGAN LATANOWICH Medford mom, rescued with her daughter by firefighters

Medford firefighters rescued a mother and her 3-year-old daughter who were trapped inside their home’s second floor during a fire early Monday morning.

“I don’t know how we would have gotten out if they weren’t there,” Megan Latanowich told NBC10 about the firefighters who saved her and her daughter, Sophia.

“I don’t understand how they do what they do every day,” she added of the firefighters.

Around 2 a.m., Medford firefighters responded to a structure fire at 30 Brookings St. A woman and her child were trapped inside the home, according to the 911 call.

The first arriving crews saw fire along the front of the house. The woman and her young child were unable to evacuate their secondfloor bedroom because of smoke and heat, officials said.

There was “no way” they could make it down the stairs, Latanowich said.

“It was definitely scary,” Latanowich said. “She (Sophia) was scared.”

“It’s emotional. It’s overwhelming,” she said. “I have never experienced anything like that ever in my life, especially with my daughter there.”

Firefighters rescued them at the window, and brought them down a ground ladder to safety.

“One of them carried her like a baby down the ladder,”

Latanowich said of her daughter getting carried down to safety.

They were both uninjured.

The fire grew to two alarms before it was contained.

“It was fast work by the first arriving company,” said Medford Fire Deputy John Freedman. “Their quick and decisive actions helped lead to a quick rescue.

“Another engine company attacking the fire made it possible to do that,” he said.

The tenants on the first floor were able to escape safely.

A sign from Medford’s Building Department on the front door of the boarded-up home on Monday read “DANGER” and “UNSAFE.”

“The fire is currently under investigation by the Medford Fire and Police Departments and State Police assigned to the Office of the State Fire Marshal,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Fire Services said in a statement. “While the fire remains undetermined at this time, it is not considered suspicious.

RICK SOBEY / BOSTON HERALD AFTERMATH: Megan Latanowich and her 3-year-old daughter were trapped upstairs early Monday when a fire broke out at their home on Brookings Street in Medford. The fire’s cause is undetermined, but not suspicious.