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Woman Dies, Toddler Dropped To Safety In South Tampa Fire

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By NEIL JOHNSON

njohnson@tampatrib.com

Published: March 23, 2009

TAMPA - With flames licking at his back, Anthony Grace leaned out a second-story apartment window, a toddler slipping from his grip, and had little choice but to let the girl go and hope her uncle would catch her.

After 1-year-old Tiyana Samuel fell 10 feet into the arms of her uncle, Ryan Loflin, Grace picked up the girl's mother, Tiffany Loflin, 24, and dropped her into her brother's arms.

Pieces of the apartment's burning ceiling had begun falling on his shoulders when Grace, 20, jumped to the asphalt just as the first ambulance arrived at 3826 S. Himes Ave., where flames tore through two apartments above Potbellies Family Restaurant on Sunday morning.

Grace, the Loflins and two children who lived in one of the apartments survived.

But a woman who lived in the other apartment was killed. Tampa Fire Rescue had not identified the woman Sunday night.

Just after 1 a.m. Sunday, Grace awoke to the smell of something burning, the shouts of Ryan Loflin and the screams of the woman next door yelling Tiffany Loflin's name. A frantic five to six minutes followed that Grace said felt like only seconds.

"My heart was just racing," he said. "I was just worried about my friends' kids and getting everybody out safely. I wasn't really thinking about anything."

He made frantic trips to the sink to put water on the fire to buy time for Ryan Loflin and his 2-year-old, Raelyn, to get past the flames and escape. Ryan Loflin, 24, suffered burns to the bottom of his feet from kicking open the front door with his bare feet and carrying his daughter outside.

The kicking caused pieces of burning ceiling to fall, blocking the way out of the apartment.

"I just closed the door behind me and went to the back room," Grace said.

Grace retreated with the baby and Tiffany Loflin. After he opened windows, the smoke was a bit less thick. The window was the only way out and there wasn't much time to think, only to react.

"Two minutes longer, it would have been real bad," he said.

Though people have mentioned the word, Grace doesn't see his actions as heroic.

"I don't really feel like a hero. I don't really feel like a superman," he said. "I just did what I had to do."

Firefighters heard the woman screaming from her apartment when they arrived and fought through the flames to find her unconscious on the bathroom floor. She was treated at the scene for burns and severe smoke inhalation but died at Tampa General Hospital, Tampa Fire Rescue said.

The fire was under control in 30 minutes but the two apartments were heavily damaged. The restaurant sustained water damage, the fire department said.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.

The unidentified woman is the second person to die in a Tampa fire this year, the fire department said.

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