'Quite Traumatizing': Family Helped Rescue Other Guests From Fire At Red Jacket Resort

NORTH CONWAY (CBS) – Sheer panic for a Laconia, New Hampshire family vacationing at a popular New England retreat when it went up in flames. "I was screaming – Mike! I was crying so bad," said 10-year-old, Aliyah Kelly as she watched her stepfather run into the burning Red Jacket Mountain View Resort on Saturday.

The fire as uncontrollable as it ripped through the resort, forcing families and children outside.

"As soon as you went to the second floor, it was dark, dark smoke," said Michael Patterson.

He told WBZ-TV that it was pure adrenaline that pushed him to run back inside to help others.

"Me and a police officer went inside. We saw a lady pushing a carriage, he ran to her. I saw two kids stuck, just frozen on the stairs, so I grabbed them, brought them out," Patterson explained.

Fire officials said some guests were forced to jump from the third-floor balcony to safety.

"It was quite traumatizing," said Kyrie Hutchinson.

Traumatizing watching the building and their belongings burn to the ground.

Some kids were leaving the waterpark with nothing but their bathing suits on.

"I was helping out passing out waters and I gave a little girl my Crocs because I felt bad," Aliyah Kelly told WBZ-TV.

North Conway's fire chief said the south wing didn't have any sprinklers because the resort was built in the 1970s when sprinklers weren't required.

One look at the charred rubble and this Laconia family says they're grateful to be alive.

"I'm happy everybody made it out," said Kelly.

Nearby Fox Bridge Resort has donated money, clothes and hotel rooms to displaced guests.