Crime & Safety

Hero Mom on the Mend After Leaping from Burning Building to Save Son

Christina Simoes, 24, made the desperate decision when a fire broke out at her Haverhill apartment May 7.

The local mother who broke her back after jumping from a burning building with her son tucked in her arms has made a miraculous recovery.

Christina Simoes, 24, made the desperate decision when a fire broke out at her Haverhill apartment May 7.

She said smoke and flames were blocking her door and the only way out was to jump with her 18-month-old son, Cameron, tucked in her arms.

"There just wasn’t enough time to wait for a firefighter," she told WHDH/7News. "So I grabbed Cameron and I gave him a kiss and then I jumped."

The boy suffered only a small bump on his head. Simoes was seriously hurt; she broke several vertebrae in the fall. She then crawled away from the burning building.

"I just kept telling him to run but he’s too little to know what that means," Simoes said. "I was crawling on my elbows, ashes and debris falling on me."

Simoes initially had trouble moving her legs. Now she has been able to walk on her own, WHDH reported. Doctors expect her to make a full recovery.

“To go from hearing ‘you’re never going to walk again and you’ll never be able to do this and do that’ to being able to stand up on my own and walk with a walker it makes me proud of myself,” Simoes told WHDH.

The fire was reportedly caused by a cigarette.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

To request removal of your name from an arrest report, submit these required items to arrestreports@patch.com.