Children escape fire; jump out of window

Two children risked jumping out of a window on the top floor of a burning building on Monday evening to save their own lives. 

A flat on the Schipborgstraat in the Hague neighborhood of Morgenstond was ravaged by a fire which injured 11 people. Some of the people who were wounded came to help.

The residents of the flat, the parents and three children, were brought to hospital Monday evening to be treated for smoke inhalation. It is not clear what kind of state they are in. The other wounded people were neighbors who were helping save residents.

Neighbor Ben was one of the witnesses who saw the children jump out of the window. "It was horrible. The fire behind them kept getting bigger", he tells the AD.

"In the street, people were yelling at them to jump. First the boy went. He is about eight, nine, and he jumped to the tree that's standing on the corner. A man had climbed the tree and grabbed him by his shirt." Ben then saw the older sister jump. She missed the target and fell, after some branches broke her fall, with her back on the ground.

At this point, the parents of the children were not yet out of the building. They came out several minutes later with burn wounds. It is unclear how the third child was brought to safety.

Grip 1 brand aan de Schipborgstraat in Den Haag waarbij drie personen naar het ziekenhuis moesten. pic.twitter.com/Kex9qKViyB

— Westlanders.nu (@WestlandersNu) April 21, 2014