Duluth firefighters first to scene for surprise home birth

DULUTH – Not long after Ezra Michael first opened his eyes, he was surrounded by firefighters.

This is not how it was planned.

A Duluth woman went into labor at home about 2 a.m. Aug. 17 — three weeks early.

After a speedy labor, Ezra was born in the bathroom before first responders arrived.

"They came two minutes after he had come out," said proud mom Sam Van De Steeg.

Fire crews were first to arrive and helped bring a sense of calm to a hectic situation. Firefighters helped father Ryan Glenn cut the baby's umbilical cord, and when the family arrived at St. Luke's, health providers said the baby was in fantastic condition given the circumstances.

"Everything went as smoothly as it possibly could in that situation," said Duluth firefighter Jesse Hansen, who was part of the crew that responded to the birth in the city's Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Glenn recounted a high-stress situation as they called 911 and helped deliver the child as best they could — though given the speed of the delivery and the chaos of the moment it was difficult to make out what dispatchers were saying.

"Thinking it's premature, it's early, something must be wrong, to then change to he's alive, he's fine, in less than a minute's time is a wild ride," Glenn said.

All told, the birth took a matter of minutes, said Van De Steeg, 26.

"It felt like an hour, but it was about five minutes after we called 911," she said.

Last year, the Fire Department fielded a record 13,698 requests for service, just 260 of which were for fires.

"We've had ones coming close but our goal is usually to get them in the ambulance to the hospital before the child comes out," he said.

Brooks Johnson • 218-491-6496