FAMILY’S ANGEL
4-year-old shouts ‘fire!’ to wake up relatives & prevent Christmas tragedy
A 4-YEAR-OLD awoke and screamed “Fire!” — a cry in the night that may have made the difference between life and death for an East Harlem family.
Little Izabella Nugent woke to see flames early Friday in the apartment on the sixth floor of the Johnson Houses, where she and her family were staying with relatives.
Izabella’s mother, Carmen Nugent, 26, said she and her husband, Chris, were on their way home from work when the fire broke out. She reflected on sifting through the charred wreckage of the apartment a day later — counting her blessings — and said her daughter was a hero.
After Izabella hollered, she grabbed her 3-year-old sister, Scarlett.
“My oldest daughter told everybody there was a fire. . . she woke up out of her sleep to fire. She woke up my youngest daughter and said, ‘There’s a fire, we have to get out now,’ ” Nugent told the Daily News.
“If she did not wake up my youngest daughter, we would not be here.”
Scarlett suffered burns to her right foot but was out of the hospital and recovering. Three brothers between the ages of 4 and 14 were also at home, as well as their mom, Nugent’s sister-inlaw, Jennifer Nugent, and her boyfriend, Jose Cid.
Firefighters who pulled the family out of the smoke-filled apartment said the 3:20 a.m. blaze was caused by a space heater plugged into an extension cord, but an FDNY spokesman said Sunday the cause had not yet been determined.
Jennifer Nugent, 31, also made lifesaving decisions in the chaos.
She took Izabella, Scarlett, her 4-year-old son Jaiden and 9-year-old son Xavier into the least smoky room and held their heads out of a window, allowing them to breathe.
“It happened so fast. The only thing I was worried about was getting out these kids. My only concern is everyone got out safe,” Jennifer said.
“I had the kids’ heads out the window so they could breathe.”
Cid, 31, was injured breaking windows. He was in stable condition in a medically induced coma due to smoke inhalation.
“There’s blood on the floor still from him,” Carmen Nugent said.
“This was a tragedy. It was devastating for us. It hurts. All of us have to go through it. Now we all have to start over.”
A GoFundMe for the family had earned $720 toward a $15,000 goal.
During a sad search through the charred apartment, Nugent got some good news: Four turtles and a pet snake had somehow survived. Two turtles were under rubble and two others were still in a tank, as was their king snake.
The kids hadn’t learned of the reptilian survivors, however — Nugent feared it would prompt a conversation about a kitten and 10-year-old cat that did not make it. The family dog also survived.
Nugent said she’ll show the kids their pets in the next few days.
“I’m sure they’ll be happy. Everything else they know is gone,” Nugent said. “Even their blankets they were attached to are lost. They haven’t asked for them — because I think they know.”