Nine months after a power line collapsed in Northeast Portland and killed three people, the Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Hero Fund has honored the 18-year-old bystander who rescued the infant child from the power line and the baby’s 15-year-old uncle who died trying.
Ta’Ron Briggs, a sophomore at Milwaukie High School when he died, and Majiah Washington, who attended Jefferson High School and worked as a daycare provider, were honored alongside 16 others nationwide for acts of heroism, according to a press release from the hero fund commission.
On Jan. 17, when a strong winter storm layered Portland in ice, Ta’Ron Briggs, his 21-year-old sister, Tajaliayh Briggs, and her partner, DeVonte Nash, died after slipping on ice and apparently touching a live wire that had collapsed onto their SUV.
Firefighters responded to reports of a “person on fire” near the intersection of Northeast 122nd Avenue and Siskiyou Street just before 11:45 a.m., fire officials said. More calls came in reporting three people and a small child lying in the street.
Firefighters arrived to find an SUV with a power line draped over it and pinned down by a large tree branch, and three people in the road about 35 feet from the vehicle, fire officials said. Callers reported that someone, later identified as Washington, grabbed the small child off of one of the adults on the ground, later identified as Nash.
According to family, Tajaliayh Briggs and Nash braved the winter storm to visit Briggs’ father, Ronald Briggs, with their 9-month-old son. They were attempting to leave when the power line fell on their SUV. Nash, holding the baby, slipped and fell on the ice as he tried to get away and was electrocuted, family said. Tajaliayh Briggs, who was six months pregnant, went after her child and was electrocuted as well.
At that point, Ta’Ron Briggs attempted to rescue his nephew and suffered the same fate, family said.
After calling 911, Washington carefully approached the baby and managed to get him to safety, she explained shortly after the incident.
“The only thing I could think about was he was still here,” Washington said in a press conference earlier this year. “I wasn’t thinking ‘Oh, I can be electrocuted.’ I was thinking, ‘I need to grab this baby.’”
Washington and Ta’Ron Briggs will both be honored with Carnegie medals, which have been given to people in the U.S. and Canada “who enter extreme danger while saving or attempting to save the lives of others,” the hero fund said. Recipients of the award are nominated via a form on the Carnegie Hero website. Industrialist Andrew Carnegie established the fund in 1904, and 10,000 people have been honored with the award since then.
Ronald Briggs, who watched the deadly incident that killed two of his children unfold, said Monday that his family is still reeling from the loss. He said he’s proud of his son for the heroic act that cost him his life.
“He always told me, ‘I’m going to make you proud of me,’” Briggs said. “I’m proud of him. He’s not here to see it, but I’m proud of him.”
The Carnegie Hero Fund will send his medal to Ronald Briggs, along with a $7,500 grant, according to Carnegie spokesperson Jewels Phraner. The family can also request reimbursement for funeral costs, Phraner said.
“He’s always going to be my hero,” Ronald Briggs said.
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