WATERLOO - Relatives threw three children from an upstairs window to save them from a fire that erupted in a Waterloo home this morning.

The women, Latoya Donald and Laverne Cosby, then jumped to safety.

No major injuries were reported, but the blaze dealt heavy damage to the house at 132 Elmwood St. where the two women and five children lived.

"I had to throw them out the window. I couldn't breathe," said Donald, who had been sleeping upstairs with her children, Jasmine, 8; Jaqushia, 7; and Jaquawn, 4.

Donald said the home didn't have smoke alarms and almost everyone was asleep.

It was 7-year-old Davon Matlock who smelled smoke at about 9 a.m. and alerted Cosby, his aunt, who was asleep downstairs.

Cosby said she knew no one was cooking and found flames coming from the area of a couch in another room when she went to investigate.

She quickly got Davon and Davon's sister, Akila Matlock, 5, out of the house.

"I just grabbed the kids and shoved them out the door," Cosby said. She screamed upstairs to alert Donald and her children and began climbing the stairs.

The rented house was filled with smoke, and the women said their escape was cut off.

"I just started dropping the kids out the window because we couldn't go down the stairs," Cosby said.

They landed on the ground amid weeds and rocks.

Donald and Cosby then jumped.

Firefighters found the front of the house engulfed in flames when they arrived and extinguished the fire.

The cause of the fire wasn't immediately available.

Contact Jeff Reinitz at (319) 291-1578 or jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com.