Neighbors save mother, 4 children from burning home

ATLANTA — Three children and their mother are in the hospital, some hooked up to breathing tubes, after being trapped inside their burning southeast Atlanta home.
 
Some neighbors told Channel 2's Rikki Klaus they pulled the burglar bars from the home to save the people inside.
 
As the fire grew, neighbors said the mother and one of her daughters begged for help from behind the bars.
 
"I was just hearing little children saying help, help," neighbor Kendarrious Chester told Klaus.
 
Chester discovered the dire situation two doors down: four children and their mother trapped in a house on fire.
 
Neighbors gave Klaus video of the flames ripping through the home.
 
Chester said he ran back to his house and rounded up three relatives.
 
"We consider them as family," Chester said.
 
"They was just helpless. They couldn't do nothing but talk to us. And I was tired of talking, so I had to do something," another neighbor who only identified himself as Wayne said.
 
The men said they gathered all their strength and yanked the burglar bars from the wall.
 
"I never knew how much strength I had until my adrenaline started rushing," Chester said.
 
Tamifonika Jones, 31, and her daughter Makiyah, 9, jumped out.
 
But three more kids were trapped inside the home on Valley View Road Wednesday night.
 
Firefighters soon arrived and pulled the remaining boys and girl from the home.
 
Their dad, Damien Walker, wishes he hadn't been at work at the time.
 
"If I was there, it would have never happened," Walker told Klaus.
 
Walker said the fire took everything except his loved ones.
 
"My No. 1 concern is my wife and my kids coming out of there OK. Everything else I can work out later," Walker said.
 
Walker said the three kids rescued last are all in stable condition, but his wife and boys are hooked up to breathing tubes.
 
They're expected to recover.

WSBTV