Nathan Hill was at work when a stranger knocked on the door of his real estate office, telling him there was a fire just next door.
THORNTON, Colo. — Investigators are searching for answers about what caused a house fire that led to the death of a child Friday afternoon on Clarkson Street in Thornton.
Nathan Hill was at work when a stranger knocked on the door of his real estate office, telling him there was a fire just next door.
“My first thought is, everybody in our office, let’s get out, let’s move the vehicles, let’s be safe,” Hill said. “And then, little do I know, there’s a child next door that can’t get out and loses his life. It’s sad.”
A man, whom Hill calls a good Samaritan, ran over to the house to warn those inside of the fire. He said first an elderly man, then a younger man, came out of the house.
“And then they say there’s a kid in there. And the good Samaritan runs in there. I don’t know if the younger gentleman ran in there or not, but they tried to save the little boy,” Hill said. “The good Samaritan said ‘I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. I had to get out.’ And then the fire trucks and the police officers just swarmed in.”
“I think it was the mother on the street, she was screaming when she found out the kid didn’t make it, and then people were just consoling her. That was the hardest thing to see,” Hill said.
The child, a little boy, died.
Three Thornton Police officers who helped search the home for the child were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation.
Hill said the good Samaritan’s fast actions saved two lives, but he wishes it were three.
“I don’t know how you get through something like that. It’s hard,” Hill said. “I just hope it was an accident and not negligence or something bad happened, because the child didn’t deserve to die.”
The cause of the fire is still under active investigation. Anyone with any information is asked to contact Thornton Police.
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