What Happened
The girls in the group home, barricaded a bedroom door with the mattress from one of their beds. They used aerosol hairspray to start a fire in the room before they climbed out the window, walked across the roof, jumped down into the backyard, and walked out the back gate into the alley. They found a place several houses down to watch the mayhem that followed.
The Claim That Followed
The girls in the group home who set fire to the house were all fine. The child care worker who thought the girls were trapped in the smoke and fire-filled room was not okay. The room that the girls set fire to was upstairs, and the caregiver was downstairs. When she smelled the smoke and heard the screams, she tried to race up the stairs to open the door and free the girls. The caregiver was extremely overweight, and had a difficult time getting up the stairs. Without knowing that the door was intentionally barricaded shut, she rammed her shoulders into the door several times before giving up and running back down the stairs to call 9-1-1. She remembered her training and grabbed the girl’s files before heading outside the house, exhausted and in pain. The insurance companies paid the property claim that followed and the workers’ comp claim that ultimately resulted in total disability for the staff member.