Kids who escaped Clinton house fire to meet their rescuers

WASHINGTON — The children who were trapped in a smoky house fire Sunday in Clinton, Maryland, will get to meet the Prince George’s County first responders who helped them escape safely.

Marcus McCoy, 13, will meet the 911 operator who comforted him, saying, “You’re doing a great job, OK?” while his little sister is heard in the background screaming, “We’re going to die!”

And Aaliyah McCoy, 9, will meet the firefighter who gave her his breathing apparatus as he carried the children from a second-story bedroom.

“I was happy when they broke the window and got in,” Marcus says of the firefighters.

Marcus and Aaliyah talked with ABC7 after returning home from Children’s National Medical Center.

“I did what I had to do,” Marcus says of the 911 call in which he directs firefighters to the bedroom where he and his sister were trapped.

“He was trying to save our lives and he did,” Aaliyah observes solemnly.

Three adults who were in the house on Small Drive when it caught fire escaped safely before firefighters arrived.

The reunion will happen at noon at the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS station on Allentown Road in Fort Washington.

See a report from ABC7:

WTOP’s Kristi King contributed to this report.

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