Early this morning, a pregnant mother of two perished when the building she was living in caught on fire.  Witnesses say she refused to jump to safety because she was pregnant. 

24-year-old Jacqueline Arteaga lived upstairs of Kimmie's Club on Newtown Barracks.  At 4:15 am a fire started and she was trapped inside.  The story of how she met her death in the sea front apartment is the tragedy of tonight's news, but we begin first with the troubling part of the story: and that is the fire Department's response: was it adequate, and could more have been done to save property, or even her life?

We have video of the earliest moments captured by a friend of the newscast and area resident, Leo Matute – and Jules Vasquez starts building the timeline from before the fire truck arrived:

Jules Vasquez Reporting

This is the fire at 4:48 am â€“ it's already in free burn and the fire truck hasn't come yet. 

The Kimmie's building is engulfed as electrical wires crackle.  Dawn hasn't broken yet, and the strong easterly wind is driving the flame unto the adjoining three story, Giovanni Smith building – which is also wooden. 

Alarms blare endlessly and a lone coconut palm stands courageously bearing witness to the raging fire.

The heat in the area is intense, and people walking away shield their heads.

It's now ten minutes to 5:00 and the fire at this point burns brighter than the sun which hasn't come up yet.

Four minutes later, the fire department is on the scene, and is feebly fighting the swarming blaze with a pair of hoses. 

While the firemen position themselves in the face of the fire and anchor their hoses on the street, the electrical crackle continues incessantly. 

It's not even 5:00 am yet and the Timmy's building is now only a shell beneath the red orange glow - and then suddenly, it collapses.

And the hungry fire is now left to gorge itself on the Smith building and the firefighters turn their attention to that structure. 

 

And while there's fire in the air – it looks like fireworks on the ground as well. 

And at 5:00 am, the Smith building is gone too, nothing can be done to stop the fire from devouring it. 

But, it's a big building and it took a long time to go down.  This is how it looked at 5:30 am,

The raging fire was belching black smoke into the morning sky while the ladder truck was just getting into position – one hour after the fire started.

There was no saving the Smith building at that point, but now the firefighters were trying to address the Pandora's Café building.

The ladder truck was right beside the sea – and city residents downwind of the fire were waking up to the thick fog of fire.

As the fire continued to rage, the setting up of the ladder truck seemed tediously slow. 

A building behind the two at the front had already been burnt and even with one fireman in the alley – it would inevitably bridge across to Pandora's.

By twenty minutes to six, then hose form the ladder truck was in the water, and the truck positions itself.

While the fire continues to churn. 

Minutes later, the Smith building is glowing…While firefighters try to douse the façade. 

Finally at ten minutes to six, the powerful water cannon is activated, only thing is it's focusing on uprooting this tree.  While the firefighters struggle to get that under control, the fire rages on in the background.

Finally at about ten minutes to 6, which is an hour after the fire team arrived, it goes airborne to do its work. 

And focuses its powerful stream on the fire. 

It takes another three minutes for it to get over the heart of the fire

And though there's not much left to burn, its effects are immediate and visible.

Still it takes another ten minutes of constant inundation to stop the fire.

By 6:00 am, the fire is well in hand, but so much – including an irreplaceable life had already been lost.