Current:Home > reviewsAn Oregon teen saw 3 people die after they slid on ice into a power line. Then she went to help -Thrive Money Mindset
An Oregon teen saw 3 people die after they slid on ice into a power line. Then she went to help
View
Date:2025-04-19 03:45:22
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Majiah Washington noticed a flash outside her home this week in Portland, where a dangerous storm had coated the city with ice. Opening her blinds, she saw a red SUV with a downed power line on it and a couple who had been putting their baby in the car.
The woman screamed to her boyfriend to get the baby to safety, and he grabbed the child and began to scramble up the driveway on concrete so slick it was almost impossible to walk. But before he made it halfway, he slid backward and his foot touched the live wire — “a little fire, then smoke,” Washington said.
The mother, six months pregnant, tried to reach the baby, but she too slipped and was electrocuted. So was her 15-year-old brother, when he came out to help.
Washington, 18, was on the phone with a dispatcher when she saw the baby, lying on top of his father, move his head — the 9-month-old was alive. Having just seen three people shocked to death, she decided to try to save the boy.
Majiah Washington listens to a question during a news conference at the Portland Fire & Rescue headquarters on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
She kept a low crouch to avoid sliding into the wire as she approached, she said at a news conference Thursday, a day after the deaths. As she grabbed the baby she touched the father’s body, but she wasn’t shocked, she said.
“I was concerned about the baby,” said Washington, who recognized the woman as her neighbor’s daughter. “Nobody was with the baby.”
Portland Fire and Rescue spokesman Rick Graves praised Washington for her heroism but confessed he didn’t understand how she and the baby weren’t also electrocuted. The baby was examined at a hospital and is fine, authorities have said.
“We do have fortunately with us a toddler that is going to be able to thrive and do what they possibly can as they move forward,” Graves said. “And they are here, in part, because of the heroic acts of a member of our community.”
The snow, freezing rain, ice and frigid temperatures that hammered the Pacific Northwest in the past week have now been blamed for at least 10 deaths in Oregon, from hypothermia and falling trees or utility poles, along with five from hypothermia in the Seattle area.
Oregon’s governor declared a statewide emergency Thursday night after requests for aid from multiple counties “as they enter the sixth day of severe impacts” from the weather.
The ice weighs down trees and power lines making them prone to snap, especially in strong winds. That appears to be what caused the electrocution deaths: A large branch broke from a tree, landed on utility wires and pushed one onto the vehicle.
Washington’s neighbor, Ronald Briggs, declined to speak with The Associated Press beyond confirming that his 21-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son had been killed.
But he told Portland television station KGW that his daughter had come over to use the internet after hers went out. He and his wife had just gotten in their own car to run an errand when they heard the boom and saw the SUV apparently on fire.
He watched as the couple slid to their deaths — and then told his 15-year-old son, Ta’Ron Briggs, a high school sophomore, to keep his distance, to no avail.
“I told him, ‘Don’t go down there — try to get away from them.’ And he slid, and he touched the water, and he, and he died too,” Briggs said. “I have six kids. I lost two of them in one day.”
“It just hurt,” he said. “Being a good father cannot solve this right now.”
___
Johnson reported from Seattle.
veryGood! (597)
Related
- Current, future North Carolina governor’s challenge of power
- Peter Thomas Roth 75% Off Deals: Improve Your Skin With Top-Rated, Game-Changing Products
- 2023 Coachella & Stagecoach Packing Guide: 10 Swimsuits to Help You Cool Down in Style
- Customs officials find 22 snakes in woman's checked bags at India airport
- Why members of two of EPA's influential science advisory committees were let go
- Dream Kardashian and True Thompson Twin in Cute St. Patrick's Day Photos
- Elon Musk wants to get out of buying Twitter. A whistleblower's claims might help him
- Twitter may have hired a Chinese spy and four other takeaways from the Senate hearing
- Realtor group picks top 10 housing hot spots for 2025: Did your city make the list?
- Who was behind the explosions in Crimea? Ukraine and Russia aren't saying
Ranking
- Skins Game to make return to Thanksgiving week with a modern look
- As takeover battle heats up, Elon Musk subpoenas former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey
- How to deal with online harassment — and protect yourself from future attacks
- Lean Out: Employees Are Accepting Lower Pay In Order To Work Remotely
- The Best Stocking Stuffers Under $25
- The Brazilian Scientists Inventing An mRNA Vaccine — And Sharing The Recipe
- Mount Kilimanjaro climbers can share slope selfies in real-time thanks to new Wi-Fi
- Ashley Graham Reveals Husband Justin Ervin Got a Vasectomy After Twins' Birth
Recommendation
Could Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft reunite? Maybe in Pro Football Hall of Fame's 2026 class
Stylist Karla Welch Reveals the Game-Changing Lesson She Learned From Justin Bieber
Life Kit: How to log off
Want to lay off workers more smoothly? There's a startup for that
Charges tied to China weigh on GM in Q4, but profit and revenue top expectations
Twitter says it's testing an edit button — after years of clamoring from users
Twitter's lawsuit against Elon Musk will go to trial in October
King Charles reminds U.K. commuters to mind the gap ahead of his coronation