MO Firefighters Rescue Adult who Saved Child from Blaze

An adult lowered a 4-year-old child from a balcony to a bystander after a fire trapped them inside a Lee’s Summit apartment Tuesday morning, according to the Lee’s Summit Fired Department.

Multiple callers reported smoke and fire coming from the apartment building about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 500 block of Southwest Mission Road.

Arriving firefighters reported heavy fire coming from the front of the two-story, four-unit building. They reported that the adult was still trapped on the balcony on the back of the building because the blaze had blocked the stairs at the front of the building, fire officials said.

As a group of fighters attacked the blaze, other fire crews rescued the person from the balcony. Firefighters searched the building and determined that everyone else had evacuated safely. No one was injured in the fire.

The fire was extinguished by about 7:40 a.m. However, crews remained at the scene extinguishing any hot spots.

The fire appeared to have started near the stairs outside the front of the building, which sustained the heaviest damage. The fire had spread inside the four units, which each had varying amounts of smoke and fire damage, according to the fire department.

The vinyl siding on the apartment building next door was damaged by the heat of the fire, although those apartments are still able to be occupied.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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