"Something made me get up and go check the stairs, and all I could see was smoke," Rachel Standfest recounted. Per PEOPLE, in May of 2023, Standfest and her husband, Travis, stayed at Rachel's parents' barn while their house was being built. Rachel, then 36 weeks pregnant, put her pet goat away near the barn and called it a night.
"I went upstairs and Travis was sleeping, which is not uncommon. [Rachel] was just watching TV with our dog and I thought that I had heard something earlier, but I didn't go check. I don't know if I heard something or if I smelled something," Rachel said. She woke up and saw nothing but smoke.
"The last thing I remember is Travis punching out the screen window, and I could see my mom in the driveway yelling, 'Get out now.' And that's the last thing I remember for probably two weeks."
Rachel and Travis were on the top floor of the barn as the fire raged. To leave through the window would've meant a 15- to 20-foot drop straight to the ground. Travis helped Rachel and their dog out of the window, and she made her fateful jump.
"It was just fight or flight," Rachel stated. "In the moment, I know I was scared. I know both of us had a moment of, 'Oh my word, is this it? Are we going to die?' But I wasn't scared to jump out because I knew that's what we had to do to survive."
Rachel Standfest, A 36-Week-Pregnant Woman, Bravely Jumps From The Window Of A Two-Story Barn
Rachel hit her head upon impact, causing a skull fracture and a brain bleed. She also received severe burns from the heat of the fire alone. Travis managed to sprint down the stairs and through the barn based on sheer memory from the amount of surrounding smoke. Rachel and Travis were quickly taken to a nearby hospital where Rachel underwent an emergency C-section. The new miracle baby, Brynlee, was unaffected by Rachel's injuries and the devastating house fire.
Rachel's mother became Brynlee's designated caretaker while Rachel and Travis recovered in the hospital. Despite a harsh road to recovery, the family would be reunited within months. In 2024, they happily announced that the family of three would become a family of four on Instagram!
