WYOMING, Ill. (KWQC) – Firefighters in Wyoming, Ill. responded to a house fire around 10:30 a.m. Monday morning, Jan. 30, 2017. 
 
 Crews responded to a home on the 900 block of N. Galena Avenue. The fire chief tells KWQC that 21-year-old Shelby Carter and her 12-day-old baby were in the home when the fire started. 
 
 Wyoming Fire Chief Ed Fogelsonger says Carter strapped her baby girl in a car seat before dropping her out of a window to save her life. 
 
 Fire crews found Carter deceased on the second floor of the home near a window. 
 
 Carter turned 21 years old on Sunday, the day before the fire. People who knew her say that was the first day she spent as a mother before making the ultimate sacrifice, and now, they say that’s how many in the community will remember her. 
 
 “A lot of praying, a lot of tears,” Stacy Unhold, a family friend of Carter’s said. 
 
 Unhold says the wounds are still fresh in the Wyoming community. 
 
 “A lot of not knowing what to do, you know, you wake up this morning and you just feel empty almost,” she said. “It was really quiet this morning in town, very quiet.” 
 
 Unhold says the town is now rallying behind the family, as they remember Carter. 
 
 “Never caused any trouble, just a good girl, definitely a good girl,” she said. 
 
 Uphold grew up with Carter’s family and for many months, the two worked together at One Eleven Coffee. 
 
 She says Carter wanted to be a mother more than anything. 
 
 “She definitely dreamed of her baby and was very much looking forward to having her child,” Unhold said. 
 
 And for just short of 11 days, Carter got to be that mom, before she dropped her baby out of a window in a car seat when her home went up in flames. All to save her baby girl’s life, while sacrificing her own. 
 
 “You put yourself in that situation and you know it wouldn’t be easy,” Unhold said. 
 
 Unhold says she will now remember a lot of things about Carter. 
 
 “Her smile and just every time you saw her she always had a smile, she always smiled, it was such a big warm smile, beautiful smile,” Unhold said. 
 
 But most of all, Unhold says she will remember how good of a mother Carter was. 
 
 “She was very not selfish, very unselfish and her heart and her love was that baby,” Unhold said. “For sure, she’s not going to be forgotten.” 
 
 Carter’s mother is now with the baby in the hospital. She says the newborn baby girl is, “doing great, Shelby made sure she was safe.” 
 
 Chief Fogelsonger says the cause of the fire is undetermined at this time. The investigation is ongoing. 
 
 He says the house is a total loss. People wanting to help the family can drop off clothes, diapers and monetary donations at the ambulance and fire stations in Wyoming. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| Kathy Hardy lost her home and a daughter today, but through her daughter's heroic actions, her 12 day old granddaughter was saved. They have lost everything and need our help. Most of the funds raised will be put in a trust for the granddaughter, Keana. 
 
 
 
 All funds will be used and accessed at the discretion of Kathy Hardy and her family. I have no personal stake in this and I am just facilitating the page for them. 
 
 
 
 For those that prefer to donate by check or cash, these donations can be sent to Kathy Hardy Family Fund c/o Better Banks, PO Box 230, Wyoming, IL 61491. The other branches will also take donations if you are near one. 
 
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– For less than two weeks, Shelby Carter got to be what she wanted most to be—a mother. Now her friends and family in Wyoming, Ill., are honoring the sacrifice she made to save her newborn daughter, reports KWQC. Carter, who had just turned 21 on Sunday, was alone with her baby Monday morning when their house went up in flames. The local fire chief says Carter strapped Keana into a car seat and dropped her from an upstairs window, saving her life. "You put yourself in that situation and you know it wouldn't be easy," says Stacy Unhold, a family friend. Carter was found near an upstairs window, and an autopsy determined she died of smoke inhalation. No cause has been determined for the fire, which destroyed the house where Carter lived with the child's father and her own mother, Kathy Hardy. The family "lost everything," says a Facebook post from the local Baptist church. But they didn't lose Keana, who was initially brought to the hospital. "The good news is, the baby got home and is doing great," a sheriff's official tells the Journal Star. "Shelby made sure she was safe," says Hardy. A GoFundMe page has been set up for grandmother and granddaughter. (A bus driver got her 20 "babies" safely off a burning school bus.)