SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio police officer Tim Bowen barely had time to take in the faces of the four children he saw peering through the second floor window of an apartment building on fire in the 9500 block of Lorene.
All he remembered was the sound of their screams, as he arrived on scene around 8 a.m. Monday.
"I was just hoping they would come to me,” Bowen said. “They didn't want to at first but I talked to them and talked to them and finally they started coming. "
Three children, ages 7, 8 and 9, eventually all jumped from the second story of the building into his arms. A fourth child –a four year old boy—panicked.
"He wouldn't come out. He was scared, " Bowen said. Fortunately, firefighters quickly arrived and were able to bring him safely out of the apartment too.
About an hour later, the group briefly reunited, flashing smiles and posing for pictures. It was a sign of relief to Jakim Cunningham, the mother of two of the children.
"Everything else is material,” she said. “As long as we're living, I'm blessed for that. But it was a horrible experience.”
Cunningham said she and her family had been through a fire in their previous home less than a year ago.
This time, though, firefighters believe the fire started outside, in a stairway shared by their apartment and several other units. Arson investigators were called in to determine the exact cause.
The fire destroyed four apartments in all, and sent other people running from their homes.
“I came down and I started knocking on everybody's door because I tried to get everybody out,” said Stephanie Tautogi. She said she also knocked on the door of the apartment where the children were, but they did not answer.
Later, as she recalled their close call with the fire, her eyes began to well up with tears.
According to Battalion Chief Armando Perez, the four children had been left home alone while Cunningham went to a store. However, when she spoke with reporters, Cunningham insisted that she was home when the fire broke out. She said she had escaped through a door just before the children got out through the window.