Babysitter Saves Kids in Dubuque Fire

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A Dubuque teenager is being credited for her quick action in getting five young children safely out of a mobile home that burst into flames.

The Telegraph Herald reports (http://bit.ly/1metog1 ) that 17-year-old Erica Weitz often cares for three of the children who lived in the home, but she took on two other children when their mothers asked for help because their baby sitters had backed out. That left Weitz with five kids, ages 1 through 7, on a Friday night last month.

Not long after a pizza arrived that night, she heard a sound in the bathroom and the trailer's lights flickered. She soon found flames in the ceiling over the bathroom.

Weitz called 911, got the kids bundled up and went out into the ice storm outside.