HAMPTON, Ga. — A metro Atlanta grandmother is being hailed a hero after saving her 5-year-old granddaughter from an apartment fire in Hampton.
The fire broke out at the apartment along Nicole Drive. Jacqueline Roberts, 52, is now recovering at Grady Memorial Hospital after jumping to safety with the little one from a second-floor window.
"I thank God when the pain eats me and I want to scream and cry I remember I'm not in a pine box. I’m in the hospital. I’ll be OK," Roberts said. "Broken bones can be fixed but you cannot come back from being dead."
She now has two broken ankles and several bruises on her arms. But she said she would not do anything differently.
On March 27, just after 4 p.m., family members woke up Roberts, alerting her of the fire. Her daughter grabbed Roberts' grandson and granddaughter and started walking down the 17 flights. Roberts recalled that's when 5-year-old Autumn ran back up the stairs.
“It was so hot and my daughter shout to me, 'Mommy, get Autumn, get Autumn,'" she recalled.
Roberts had returned upstairs to grab her identification and other important items that she did not want to leave behind.
"If I had gone downstairs with my daughter, my granddaughter would have been in the fire. She would have perished," Roberts said with tears coming down her face.
Through the smoke, Roberts was able to find Autumn.
“I saw her silhouette in my son’s doorway," she recalled. "She said, 'Grandma, get me grandma, get me grandma, don’t leave me. Save me.'"
By then, Roberts said their only way out was through a second-story window, about 15 feet off the ground.
“By this time, the smoke is coming now," she said. "It’s getting a little more dangerous. She’s coughing, I’m coughing."
Roberts said she then grabbed Autumn by her wrists, and slowly let her go.
"I kind of bent over on my window to where the front of my stomach and my pelvic bone were over [the windowsill]," she said. "When I dropped her she said, 'Ouch' and then said, 'I’m OK grandma.' Then I said, 'OK, you have to move now so grandma can jump.'"
Roberts started getting ready to go out of the window. She said it had rained that day and thankfully the grass was muddy and wet, making for a softer landing.
"I'm on the floor laying down and one foot is going this way, and the other foot is going this way, and my body is one way," she said.
She was rushed to Grady Hospital, where she found out she had two broken ankles. She had surgery on Friday and is not sure how much longer she'll have to stay in the hospital recovering.
Meanwhile, Autumn only has a few scratches thanks to her grandmother’s quick thinking.
"I had to pinch myself to make sure I am alive," she said. "Because at that time the pain of my broken ankles did not set in. I [was] in shock."
Roberts said fire officials and her landlord told her the cause of the fire was electrical.
While she lost all material things in it, she feels she gained another lease on life, making it out alive with her first granddaughter by her side.
"I just love my children and my first granddaughter," she said. "I love my grandkids. The only option I had was to save her life. Not even mine, really. I wasn't even thinking about myself, honestly. It was to get her out because she's only 5 years old. I'm 52, I've lived life and she didn't start to experience life."
She said God was able to help her get through those moments.
"I believe in the power of God and the reason why I was calm is because he was there with me. Because the calmness came over me," she added.
Roberts' family has set up an online fundraiser to help pay for medical bills.