Father suffers second-degree burns in fire, family struggles to recover
DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. - A family of 12, including newborn twins, made it out of a raging DeKalb County apartment fire, including newborn twins on Wednesday.
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It happened on Pine Tree Circle in DeKalb County. The father was the only one hurt after he sustained burns while getting all of his children off a third-story balcony. After an overnight stay in the hospital, he was released and is now talking about the incident which changed their lives.
“Failure is not an option, failure is never an option when it comes to protecting family," said Lance Ragland
Ragland proved that to be true early Wednesday morning when he got his family of 12 out of a burning apartment the only they could, off the third-story balcony.
The only way out was off his third story balcony.
"I felt warm, then one time it got really hot, that pushed me to go faster," said Ragland.
One by one, Ragland started sending his family down a ladder where firefighters caught the children
"From my end, I'm looking at a checklist, I couldn't see what everybody else was doing," said Ragland.
"At the bottom, [it’s a] whole other world going on because they're catching the rush that I’m sending down and I'm not giving no space," said Ragland.
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Ragland was the last to leave and suffered second-degree burns to his back, but said he's fine with that. His newborn babies and the rest of his family is all that mattered to him in that moment.
"Anything happens to me, I'm okay, but to y’all no," said Ragland.
The family lost everything and are now staying with family until they can get back on their feet.
Ragland goes into surgery Friday for his injuries.
The family has a Go Fund Me page and they also need diapers, formula for the babies and much more.
"We're just trying to figure out how we're going to rebuild but we're together and we will figure it out," said Ragland.
He's just happy none of his children were injured at all in the fire.
RELATED: Massive fire rips through DeKalb County apartment complex