Mother's Courage Saved Her Baby When Smoke Filled Their QC Condo

What began as an ordinary morning in June quickly became every parent's worst nightmare.

While putting her five-month-old son down for a nap, Arianna Marin, 34, heard sirens, a sound she had grown accustomed to hearing in their condominium building. It wasn't until she smelled smoke and opened her bedroom door that she realized something was terribly wrong. Their home had filled with thick black smoke, and when she tried to leave the unit, she found the hallway completely engulfed, leaving them trapped inside.

“I was already in a panic when I smelled the smoke, but I grew more and more distressed with every door of our unit that I opened. The smoke was coming in fast. My priority was to get rescued, so first I called our building lobby,” Arianna told Smart Parenting.

With no visible escape route, she returned to the bedroom and called for help. When she couldn’t reach the building lobby, she called her father instead.

“I called my father, who lived on the 20th floor, and asked him to get help for us. He did not even know that there was a fire. He instructed me to place a wet towel under our bedroom door to prevent smoke from entering and to cover our faces with damp cloth. I was able to cover my baby’s face with a wet shirt, but I was unable to cover my own,” Arianna recalled.

She continued, “I opened all the windows in our bedroom and held my son’s head near the window farthest from the door. I also tried my best to stick my head out occasionally to breathe cleaner air. We stayed by that window for around 30 minutes.”

As smoke continued to seep into the room, her husband, who had rushed home from work, urged her to try to escape.

“It was my husband who convinced me to try and run to the fire exit despite the thick smoke. It was right next to our unit, and he knew I had a good chance of getting to it. He was outside our building, and from there he could see that the smoke seemed to be concentrated on the top floors. We were on the 27th), so we really needed to get down,” she added.

Realizing that staying put had become even more dangerous, she covered her baby completely and carefully made her way through the smoke-filled unit. With almost no visibility, she found the fire exit beside their unit and began the long descent down 27 flights of stairs.

Arianna and her baby eventually reached the ground floor safely, but their ordeal wasn’t over yet.

“I went to the lobby, where no first responders or staff came to my aid. The people in the lobby, including the staff, just looked at me. I think I said, ‘I need help. My baby needs help.’ Somebody then told me to go outside, where the firefighters and medics were,” Arianna recalled.

“My son and I stayed in the hospital for five days for testing and treatment for acute respiratory distress syndrome (myself) and smoke inhalation injury (my son),” she said.

It took some time before they received assistance, but they were eventually transported by ambulance to a hospital, where both received oxygen treatment.

For parents, Arianna’s experience is a sobering reminder that emergencies can unfold without warning. Knowing evacuation routes, keeping emergency numbers within easy reach, and having a family emergency plan may not prevent disasters, but they can help families respond more quickly when every second counts.

She shared these tips for other parents:

• Know where the nearest fire exits are and how to reach them. 

• Make sure your smoke alarms are working at all times. Arianna observed that theirs, along with several others in the building, did not activate. 

• If you find yourself in that situation, seal doors with damp towels and cover your face with a damp cloth to help protect yourself from smoke.  If you need to prioritize your children, don’t forget to protect yourself as well. 

• Make sure everyone is checked for possible injuries. Some symptoms may not appear until several days later. 

• When someone you know goes through a difficult experience, even a small act of kindness can make a big difference. 

• Learn to trust your instincts and keep the faith.

According to the Red Cross, here are the steps when a fire starts:

• Get out, stay out, and call for help.  

• If your clothes catch fire, Stop, Drop, and Roll.  

• If you live in a building with elevators, use the stairs. Leave your belongings behind and get yourself to safety.  

• If you must escape through smoke, stay low and move beneath the smoke toward your nearest exit.  

• If smoke, heat, or flames block your exit routes, stay in a room with the doors closed. Place a wet towel under the door and call the fire department. Open a window and wave a brightly colored cloth or flashlight to signal for help.

No parent ever expects an ordinary morning to become a fight for survival. Yet Arianna's harrowing experience is a powerful reminder that emergencies can happen when we least expect them and that, in those moments, instinct, preparation, and presence of mind can save lives. It also reminds parents to talk with our children about emergency plans, what to do in an emergency, and the nearest evacuation routes before they’re ever needed.

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