Some Jump, Baby Dropped To Escape Rosslyn Fire

Someone was banging on the door of his Rosslyn apartment, but Oscar Polanco's father didn't want to open it. Probably some drunk, he said.

It's nearly dawn, Polanco, 22, replied. We should see who it is.

When he opened the door about 4:45 a.m. yesterday, he was met by thick, acrid smoke billowing through the hallway. He slammed the door and ran to wake the rest of his family.

They grabbed some clothes and rushed outside. Polanco's father didn't have time to put shoes on. Smoke and flames were shooting out of basement windows.

Neighbors on the upper floors of the three-story apartment building in the 1500 block of Fairfax Drive were leaning out of windows, calling for help. Then they started jumping, one after another. Some from the second floor. Others from the third. A few came crashing through trees.

One "scaled down like he was Spider-Man," Polanco said. "It was like a movie. . . . They were panicked."

A mother and father held their 2-year-old at a second-story window. Polanco said the mother screamed for help and indicated that she wanted someone to catch the child.

A crowd gathered beneath her, Polanco said, and the mother let go. One of Polanco's neighbors caught the bundle.

Within minutes, firefighters arrived, propped their ladders against the building and rescued 16 more people. Another was rescued by a firefighter who entered the building. Forty residents, many of them immigrants from Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico, escaped the blaze in the pre-dawn cold.

Fifteen were taken to hospitals, said Arlington County Chief Fire Marshal Benjamin Barksdale. Most of the injuries were minor and included bumps and bruises and smoke inhalation.

Two people who jumped broke their legs, he said. One person cut his arm on broken glass, and another injured his back.

The fire originated in a storage area in the basement, Barksdale said, but investigators do not know what caused it.

The door to the storage area was open, Barksdale said, allowing the smoke to travel up the stairwell, which Barksdale said "acted as a chimney."

Early yesterday afternoon, several hours after the fire, the smell of smoke hung in the air around the building, which was charred throughout. Officials estimated the damage at $500,000.

Some of the displaced residents planned to spend the night at the Best Western motel next door. Polanco said his family would stay with his brother.

Twelve fire engines and about 75 emergency workers responded to the blaze, which temporarily shut off Route 50 between Lynn and Queen streets.

Staff writer Debbi Wilgoren contributed to this report.