Tacoma family reunited after fire that left teen on life support
May 17, 2023, 5:40 AM | Updated: 6:55 am
The TFD responded to nearly 50,000 calls, about 80% of which were for medical assistance, in 2022 alone. (Photo from Tacoma Fire Department)
(Photo from Tacoma Fire Department)
A Tacoma family has been reunited after a fire left their teenage daughter on life support.
The Droge family says their smoke alarms didn’t sound until part of their North Tacoma home was engulfed in flames last Friday.
It was a delay that forced their daughter to jump nearly 20 feet to survive.
“I was in shock and I couldn’t stop screaming,” recalls 15-year-old Kayli.
She woke up to smoke filling her bedroom.
While the rest of the family of 11 made it to safety, Kayli couldn’t make it out from upstairs.
“I was like ‘baby, jump out the window. Jump out the window!” says her mother, Destany Droge. “She was like, ‘I can’t. I can’t.’
“I thought I was going to die in that moment,” says Kayli.
But she jumped, with Droge rushing to break the fall. Droge tore her rotator cuff in the process.
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” says Droge.
Kayli was rushed to Harborview Medical Center and released on Tuesday. Her mom calls it a day of joy for the family.
“What matters to me is that we’re here. We can look at each other, we can see each other. Everything else will come,” says Droge.
She tells KIRO 7 that the home is a total loss and that at the end of this week, the family doesn’t know where they’ll live. Right now they’re staying in a donated Air-BnB. The family created a GoFundMe to help with expenses and shelter.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation by the Tacoma Fire Department.
