Fire hero shares story

Austin (KXAN) - A woman who survived a massive fire in South Austin is recovering from serious burns - and sharing an incredible story.

Lerner Barrera-Schlemper lived in the Bainbridge Villas on Southridge Drive when the breezeways caught fire on August 29th.

Barrera-Schlemper saw the fire when she had to take her dog out. She immediately started knocking on doors, telling people to get out.

What happened next has people calling her a hero.

"I noticed a little girl in the apartment with the door open," Barrera-Schlemper remembered. "I could see - eyeline - I could see her."

She sighed, "I had to run up the steps. Both of them were on fire - so I had to. I had to take one of them and I'm like, 'this is the closest.'"

Barrera-Schlemper sat on a bed as she spoke. Her feet were bandaged from burns she suffered in the fire.

"She would not cross the threshold," Barrera-Schlemper continued, describing what happened. "She jumped down and went to the back of the apartment. I ran down and got to the window where they were at - the little boy and her - and I said just jump."

"I told the boy - just turn around papa - just turn around like you're going to do a pull-up at school and drop." No problem. She did the same thing."

"Then, when the adult jumped - that's the one that hurt me," Barrera-Schlemper said. "Because she jumped front first and I got the whole impact of her knees on my chest."

Aside from that impact, Lerner suffered 3rd degree burns on her feet. Four other people were hurt in the fire. But everyone survived.