By Claire Rush and Gene Johnson -
The Associated Press
Majiah Washington noticed a flash of light outside her home this week in Portland, Oregon, as a dangerous winter storm covered the city in ice.
She opened the curtains and saw a red SUV that had had a line of electrical wiring fall on it, and a couple who had put her baby in the vehicle.
The woman was yelling at her boyfriend to rescue the baby;
He took it and began to move towards the house on the cement floor, so slippery that it was almost impossible to walk, but before he could get halfway he slipped backwards and his foot touched the high tension cable: "A little fire and then smoke," Washington recalled.
The mother, six months pregnant, tried to reach the baby but also slipped and was electrocuted.
The same fate later befell her 15-year-old brother when he tried to come to the rescue.
[Millions of people still under weather warnings due to the winter storm]
Washington, 18, was on the phone with an emergency services operator when she saw that the baby, who was lying on top of his father, was shaking his head.
The child, 9 months old, was alive.
So, right after watching three people die from electrocution in front of her, she decided that she had to try to save him.
She moved while crouching to avoid slipping and touching the cable as she approached, according to what she said in a press conference this Thursday, a day after the incident.
When she went to grab the baby she touched her father's body, but she was not electrocuted, she explained.
"I was worried about the baby,"
explained the young woman, who had recognized the woman as her neighbors' daughter.
"No one was with the baby," she added.
Majiah Washington during the press conference. Jenny Kane / AP
Portland Fire and Rescue Services spokesman Rick Graves praised Washington for her heroism, but confessed that he didn't understand how she and the baby had not been electrocuted.
The boy was tested at the hospital and is doing well, according to authorities.
"Hopefully we have a child who is going to be able to grow up and do what they can to get ahead," Graves said, "He is here, in part, because of the heroic act of someone in our community."
The snow, freezing rain, ice and cold that hit the Northwest of the country this week have caused at least ten deaths in Oregon, due to hypothermia and falling trees or power poles.
Five other people died from hypothermia in the Seattle area.
Oregon's governor declared an emergency on Thursday after receiving requests for help from several counties following "the sixth day of severe effects" caused by the winter storms.
Ice loads trees and power lines with additional weight, making them prone to snapping, especially under high winds.
Apparently that was what caused the deaths due to electric shock: a large branch broke off from a tree, fell on the power lines and threw one of them onto the car.
A Washington resident, Ronald Briggs, declined to speak to The Associated Press news agency but did confirm that his 21-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son had died in the incident.
[In video: Vehicles slide down icy streets in Oregon]
Briggs told local station KGW in Portland that her daughter had gone to her house to use her internet after losing service.
He and his wife had just gotten into their car to run some errands when they heard a bang and saw the vehicle on fire.
He watched the couple slide to their deaths and told his 15-year-old son, Ta'Ron Briggs, a high school student, in vain to keep his distance.
"I told him 'don't go there, try to stay away from them,' but he slipped and hit the water and died too,"
Briggs said.
"I have six children, today I lost two in the same day," he said.
"It hurts," he added, "being a good father can't solve this now."