An 18-year-old woman saved a nine-month-old baby after his parents and uncle were fatally electrocuted by a downed power line in Northeast Portland on Jan. 17.

Majiah Washington witnessed the tragic scene begin to unfold from a window in her home. Before noon Wednesday, a family next door was loading into their vehicle when a tree branch fell, pulling a live power line onto the hood of the car and starting a small fire under the car.

The father, holding his baby, tried to move away from the car but slipped, sliding into the power line. The mother, trying to get to them, slipped into the power line too, followed by the baby’s teenage uncle. All three died.

Washington left her home and called 911 as she watched what happened.

“The baby moved his head, and that’s how I knew he was still here,” Washington said during a press conference with Portland Fire & Rescue on Thursday.

Despite the danger, Washington quickly went to retrieve the baby. “The only thing I could think about was how he was still here, he was moving his head, so I just didn’t want him to possibly fall,” she said. “I didn’t really feel any fear in the moment, I just felt a rush to get to him.”

Babies are typically crawling by nine months, increasing the risk that he could have crawled out of his father’s arms and slid into more danger if Washington had waited.

“I crouched down, I slid, I used my hands to break my fall,” Washington said. “I grabbed the baby with my hands and just made my way up the hill.” Washington said she did touch the father as she grabbed the baby from him, but did not get any electrical shock.

By the time firefighters arrived on the scene — only five minutes after being dispatched — Washington had gotten the baby inside, away from the chaos outdoors.

The whole situation unfolded in just a few minutes.

“In the moment, it felt like everything was going slow,” she said. Things were moving “very slow but very fast at the same time.”

Ronald Briggs said the deceased were his 21-year-old daughter, her boyfriend, and his 15-year-old son Ta’Ron Briggs, KGW reported.

Briggs’ daughter was six months pregnant.

Ta’Ron Briggs was a sophomore at Milwaukie High School and “will be deeply missed both in and out of the classroom,” the principal wrote in a Jan. 17 email to families.

Fire officials had initially said the family members had died when they exited the vehicle after the power line fell, becoming part of the electrical circuit, but officials later said that was incorrect: It was the slick ice on Wednesday that caused the family members to slip down their driveway, into the power line that electrocuted them.

“We have three deaths, we have two adults and a teen. But fortunately, in all of that, we do have a toddler that made it through,” Portland Fire & Rescue spokesman Rick Graves said. “I don’t understand the science behind it, I don’t think anybody visibly saw exactly what happened. But where we are now is we do have, fortunately, with us a toddler… And they’re here, in part because of the heroic acts of a member of our community.”

Washington, a day care worker and former Jefferson High School student, said she responded the only way that seemed right.

“I would want somebody to do the same thing. I would hope somebody would do the same thing,” said Washington, who has younger brothers and a nephew.