Majiah Washington

Majiah Washington saved a boy from electrocution, Portland, Oregon, January 17, 2024. After freezing rain coated the city’s roads and trees with ice, the 9-month-old boy’s parents were at a vehicle parked on a residential street when a large tree branch snapped and pulled a power line down onto the SUV and the street. Having seen a flash through her apartment window in a nearby building, Washington, 18, an assistant daycare teacher, went outside to the top of the sloped, ice-covered driveway. As the downed line sparked, the boy’s father, 30, was carrying the boy toward the apartment complex when he fell, feet-first, down the driveway to the line at the base at the street, came into contact with an electrical current, and was electrocuted. While the boy, who was awake, rested on the chest of his unresponsive father, his 21-year-old mother, who was pregnant, fell next to the father and also was electrocuted. From an apartment near Washington’s, the boy’s 15-year-old uncle came outside and approached the mother – his sister – from the top of the driveway, slipped and fell beside her, and, too, was electrocuted. On the phone with a 911 dispatcher, Washington relayed that three people were motionless near the downed line as the boy moved atop his father. The dispatcher advised Washington that first-responders were coming, that she and others should stay away from the line, and that Washington should not endanger herself to reach the boy. While remaining on the 911 call, Washington slid down the driveway to the father, putting her hands onto him to brace herself. Washington, who did not feel an electrical shock, then lifted the boy from his father’s chest and carried him back up the driveway to safety before first-responders arrived. Although the boy was taken to a hospital as a precaution, he was not injured. His parents and uncle died at the scene.