Woman throws baby, toddler out two-storey window to passer-by

A DESPERATE Sydney mother was forced to throw her children out of a two-storey apartment window to escape an inferno.

Two people have been rescued from a burning unit on the second floor of a three level unit complex on Wangee Road, Lakemba. Numerous fire brigades attended as reports of people trapped on the balcony were called in. The unit was destroyed. A ladder was seen against the front of the building where the occupants were rescued. Pics Bill Hearne

A WOMAN has thrown her baby and toddler from a two-storey window after her western Sydney unit caught fire.

The fire started in the Lakemba unit when the 27-year-old woman was cooking in her kitchen about 9.30pm on Thursday.

Senior Constable Jamie Wallace told AAP the fire meant the woman was unable to get out the front door, so she grabbed her two-day-old boy and two-year-old child and rushed to a second-storey window.

A passer-by below came to their aid.

“She ended up dropping the two kids out the window and he caught them,” Snr Const Wallace said.

However, the man, who lived nearby, told Nine News the children actually landed on mattresses he’d dragged from his home.

He was watching football when he smelt the smoke — and when he went outside he saw smoke coming from the apartment window.

He got the mattresses from his home and placed them onto the ground. “I had to help,” he told the Today show this morning.

The man said the children landed on the mattresses.

The children were uninjured and the woman was rescued from the window sill shortly afterwards when firefighters arrived. The mother was taken to hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation and cuts to her feet.

The fire spread to other units and about 50 people were evacuated from the 12-unit block.

A 19-year-old woman was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene, while a 65-year-old man, who also suffered smoke inhalation, was taken to hospital for further treatment.

The fire is not being treated as suspicious.

The children were passed to a passer-by out the second-storey window in Lakemba, western Sydney. Picture: Bill Hearne

Originally published as Woman throws baby, toddler out two-storey window to passer-by