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3 children recovering after Virginia Beach mobile home fire

Posted at 11:37 AM, Dec 20, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-21 07:30:20-05

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Three children who were injured after a Tuesday morning mobile home fire are now in Boston recovering.

Kaira Pentz. (Courtesy Alyssa Pentz)

The children's grandmother, Monica, told News 3 that 7-year-old Kaira Pentz is awake and has been treated, while 5-year-old Jaxson Pentz and 2-year-old Aurora Pentz will need skin grafts.

Officials say that when firefighters arrived, Jaxson and Aurora were still inside the mobile home, while Kaira and her parents had made their way outside of the trailer.

Their mother, Alyssa Pentz, said she woke up when her husband asked if she felt hot. She said they could not get to the children down the hall because of the fire and smoke.

A neighbor helped them pull Kaira out of the house, but a firefighter had to rescue the two younger kids.

“You don’t think about yourself; you think about the kids," said the firefighter, who entered the mobile home to save the kids and almost lost his life doing so.

“He had to literally dive out the window himself, falling a distance of about six feet to the ground out of the window," added Virginia Beach Fire Department Public Information Officer Art Kohn about the heroic and life-threatening rescue by the firefighter. "Because at that point, the whole thing just flashed over and it was huge flames and smoke and even with his protective gear on, [he] couldn’t remain in that structure anymore. Probably safe to say that he got out just in time."

According to Monica, the firefighter told her he couldn't believe Aurora lived through the fire.

All three children were initially taken to Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk. Aurora was unresponsive after being rescued, but according to her grandmother, she did not sustain brain damage.

Kaira has burns to 4 percent of her body and cuts to her stomach from being pulled through the window. Her grandmother said that she is "happy and smiling" and will be able to see her parents soon.

Jaxson has burns to 20 percent of his body and is in surgery now, she said. He was "somewhat responsive" on Wednesday.

Aurora has 30 percent burn injuries. She is having liver issues, according to her grandmother, so she will need to be moved to a more intensive unit.

Chiniqua Radford is collecting shoes, clothes, food and toys for the Pentz family until Saturday.

"It hurts because although I don't know them, when you have a heart for people... when you see people hurt, you hurt," Radford said.

Friends have set up a GoFundMe account to help with these and relocation expenses.

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