I Had To Walk Through Fire For My Kids

When Angel Fiorini’s dream home burst into flames while her family slept, she attempted the impossible to save her children. Then something magical happened.

- Jonathan Small

On a Friday night in October 2016, Angel Fiorini snuggled into bed with two of her kids, Vinnie, 3, and Rosalie, 17 months. Nearby, 7-year-old Gianna slept soundly in her own bed. Their 2,600-square-foot home was undergoing a renovation, and the bedroom was one of the few almost finished rooms in the house.

Angel, a 32-year-old homemaker in Newman Lake, WA, was there alone with the children; their dad, Aaron, a flooring specialist, was out with friends. Like Angel, he was looking forward to celebrating their 15th anniversary the next day.

Angel dozed off — and then suddenly awoke, gasping for air. Holding her chest while a “strange chemical smell” burned her nostrils, she rolled out of bed and cracked open the door. “My heart dropped to my stomach — flames were blazing from floor to ceiling,” she says. Panicked, Angel scooped up Vinnie and Rosalie, thinking she’d come back for Gianna. “There was not a doubt in my mind that I’d be able to go back in and get her,” she says.

She stumbled down the hall, eyes shut tight against the thick smoke. The fire had started on the other side of the single-story home, but was now roaring toward them, consuming everything in its path. Most of the walls weren’t up yet, so all that stood between Angel and the flames were bare wooden frames, crackling like firewood.

The kids screamed as they tried to hide their faces from the heat. Angel, gasping for air, reached the front door — and Vinnie slipped to the hot ground and screamed again. “I dragged my babies on the ground by their arms into the front yard,” says Angel.