A young child escaped with her life after plummeting five floors from an apartment building in central Richmond.
The girl, thought to be four or five years old, fell more than 60 feet from a seventh-floor balcony on Wednesday afternoon onto a gravel-covered canopy on the second floor.
Incredibly, after the horrific plunge – at the 12-storey Panorama Place complex on Granville Avenue close to Gilbert Road – the girl sustained serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
However, the second-floor resident who called 911 and kept the girl calm until emergency services arrived, was told by paramedics how they discovered that the child was home alone.
“I was about to leave my apartment when I heard this very loud sound,” said Anna Larichev.
“I thought something big had fallen over in the apartment and started looking around. I couldn’t see anything.
“But then I happened to look outside and there was this little girl lying face down on the canopy outside. She wasn’t moving at first. But after a few seconds, she started to roll over.”
Larichev called 911 and then went out onto her own balcony, adjacent to the canopy, to tell the girl to stay where she was.
“I could maybe have reached her with a ladder, but the operator told me not to risk getting hurt or to move the girl in case she had injuries,” she added, noting the incident happened about 2:40 p.m.
“I don’t know what would have happened if I wasn’t at home. She was trying to crawl, but wasn’t really crying that much. It was amazing. All I could hear her saying was ‘police’ and ‘help.’
“I was worried she was going to crawl off the canopy onto the ground.”
Paramedics told Larichev they suspected the girl had broken ankles and arms.
“There was a paper airplane on the canopy, so I assume she threw that over and was trying to get to it.”
The BC Ambulance Service wouldn’t give out any information, as per its policy for “routine” incidents.
A spokesperson for Richmond Fire-Rescue (RFR), which was first to attend, said it responded to an incident on Granville Avenue where a young child fell from the seventh floor onto a canopy one floor above ground level.
“The child was alert and able to communicate with our teams on arrival, however sustained serious injuries to the lower extremities, along with the potential of internal injuries.”
RFR recommends that families evaluate their homes to identify all hazards and that young children are "always closely supervised and especially when close to hazardous areas such as on balconies, and open windows."
Richmond RCMP confirmed it was called in by RFR after receiving information about injuries to a young child.
A spokesperson for Richmond RCMP told The News how the girl “miraculously” sustained only non-life threatening injuries.
The News understands that the B.C. government’s Ministry of Children and Family Development is now investigating.
