With billowing smoke invading her family’s third-floor apartment, a Millville mom faced a devastating decision.

Chelsea Mitchell knew firefighters were on their way, but she did consider dropping her children into the arms of the crowd below to keep them safe.

Each second seemed an eternity, she said.

Millville firefighters pulled into the 100 block of North High Street, extended their ladder to the family’s bedroom window, and rescued the parents and their two children in the early morning of April 4.

The fire destroyed just about everything she owned, Mitchell said, but it also spared all that she loved.

"The (fire) alarm in our building goes off very frequently," Mitchell said, during an interview recounting her family’s rescue.

Hearing the warning wail, she texted the landlord. Less than a minute later, she said, she smelled smoke. Opening the bedroom door, she noticed light smoke swirling at the ceiling.

“I ran into the kids’ room, brought them into my room and we panicked for a minute,” Mitchell said.

After calling 911, Mitchell looked out her window and saw the crowd gathering below, just outside the Old Oar House Irish Pub across the street.  

"Everyone was looking up, I could tell that everyone knew there was something going on already,” Mitchell said.

An emergency vehicle was parked out front and someone shouted rescue was in the building.

“That seemed like we were supposed to hold tight,” Mitchell said, but neighbors who evacuated called and urged them to get out.

More:'Baby, we got to go': High Street residents flee fire at Millville apartments

"We grabbed the kids, I've got Aries under my right arm and I'm holding Luna with my left hand,” she said, her fiancé, Dominick Hernandez, was in front leading them out.  

Fire safety tips forgotten, they failed to feel the door before preparing to flee.

“Dominick grabbed the handle and screamed the most awful scream that is still permeating in my head, he burned his hand,” Mitchell said. “He must have only opened the door a crack, but the pressure of our clean oxygen and the smoke out there made like — not a bomb, there was no explosion — but a whoosh sound and we were all pushed back.”

“Within a second, I looked down at my son and couldn't see him,” she said.

Hernandez, 29, yelled to his family to get back to the bedroom and they tried to evade the choking smoke.

“I heard it. When we were standing in the corridor right before we opened the door, I could hear the crackling,” she said. “I know it doesn't make sense to feel like you can hear the smoke but you almost could; it was like a high-pitched white noise sound.”

 With no way out, the smoke was getting thick and more menacing.

"I start screaming out the window," Mitchell said. "We're going to die, we can't get out, we're trapped.”

Someone yelled to put a wet towel at the bottom of the closed door. They didn’t have water but found a towel to try to stem the smoke seeping into the room.

Hernandez kicked out the screen and air conditioner from another window to access more outside air.

"I was moments from throwing my blanket out the window and asking people to catch my children because I didn't think (firefighters) would get there in time," Mitchell said. "I didn't think there was any way that we were all going to be OK."

Millville Fire Department deployed their ladder truck to reach the family at the window.

“Dominick was saying, ‘They are right there, stop yelling,’” Mitchell said. “I couldn't, I kept yelling, ‘Please come, hurry.’”

Firefighters Kevin Hall and Bryan Lippincott scaled the ladder to the third-floor window above the vacant ground floor store fronts, Mitchell said.

“Their faces are engraved in my brain,” she said. “As soon as they came up, I was looking at them and just waiting for some kind of guidance, but they were still too far; they weren’t quite there yet.”

Mitchell, 29, had the children ready to hand out.

“You want to toss them, but you don’t because you don’t want to risk it,” she said, waiting for the firefighters to place the ladder flush with the building's brick façade.

Luna, 5, went out first, tucked into the arms of Lippincott, Mitchell said.

“I said hold on to him and hold on tight,” she said, with Luna telling her, “Ok Mommy, I’ll be brave.”

Lippincott passed the girl to Hall, who carried her down the ladder steps, Mitchell said.

Aries, 3, was more reluctant and his cries are audible in video of the rescue.

“I don’t know if (the firefighter) told me I could come on or not, but I followed immediately, as soon as I handed off my son,” Mitchell said.

“I am terrified of heights, but I didn’t feel fear climbing out of that window,” she said. “I felt fear staying in there.”

Mitchell saw Aries’ face peering over the firefighter’s shoulder.

“I just locked eyes with him,” she said, telling him, ‘Mommy’s right here.”

Once the family was bundled in the ambulance and the doors closed, tears streamed down her face.

“Our cats, our home, everything, it was just hitting me,” she said, thinking of all that was lost.

 Hernandez put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“We’re all OK, we’re all out,” he reassured her. “We have what we need, we have our family.”

The following day, Mitchell and Hernandez returned to their apartment. With the fire officials’ authorization, they were permitted inside.

“I couldn’t make it up the stairs, I tried,” Mitchell said. “As soon I walked in there and smelled it again, I couldn’t go up.”

When Hernandez came out, he had a carrier containing one of their cats found hidden under the couch. The second cat was later discovered in a dresser.

“I started blubbering, I didn’t think there was any chance that they were going to live,” she said, fearing they had succumbed to the smoke.

It was the sign of hope that she needed.

Dealing with uncertainty is challenge, especially with children, Mitchell said.

The parents juggle making bouncing between homes of family members an “adventure” for the children, while trying to establish a routine. Who sleeps where is up in the air, with recliners and couches pressed into double duty.  

Each afternoon, it’s naptime at the apartment of PopPop and Nana, also known as David and Noel Mitchell.

Calling for new places, Mitchell is learning about the three-to-six- month waiting lists for rentals. The family is also looking at mobile homes.

“I can’t afford to be picky, but I’m scared,” she said. “I want to be somewhere where I know this isn’t going to happen again.”

No matter where she is staying, Mitchell said she instinctively searches for escape routes.

“That’s my initial thought, in an instant, how would you, how could you,” she said.

Standing on the High Street sidewalk looking across to her former apartment, Mitchell was approached by the owner of U.S. Taekwondo. He came out to say he was sorry for what her family was going through.

“He brought me a hoodie and brought hoodies for my children,” Mitchell said.

That was the start of “seeing how much everybody cared and how everybody is so willing to help,” she said. “Everyone keeps saying 'We got you.'”

Clothing and food donations help.

A family member, Morgan Holben in Clover, South Carolina, set up a GoFundMe hoping to raise $10,000 to get the family in a place to call home. 

“Everyone’s generosity and kindness has been so astounding, it definitely restored my faith in humanity,” she said. “It’s making all the difference.”

Millville City Commission is set to recognize the lifesavers during its April 19 meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. The meeting is open to the public at City Hall, 12 S. High St.

Deborah M. Marko covers breaking news, public safety, and education for The Daily Journal, Courier-Post and Burlington County Times. Got a story idea? Call 856-563-5256 or email dmarko@gannettnj.com. Follow on Twitter: @dmarko_dj Instagram: deb.marko.dj  Help support local journalism with a subscription.