WORCESTER, Mass. (WHDH) -- In Worcester, rain and ice slicked the roads, causing a fire truck to slide down Catherine Street sideways.

Leonarda Santiago was getting out of a minivan with her niece’s 6-year-old son Jose. They could have been killed, but she acted quickly.

“When she saw the fire truck sliding down the hill, she got him and they started running, but they fell in the street. Luckily, I guess it hit cars and that’s when it stopped sliding down the hill,” said

Firefighters had responded to calls that a vehicle had crashed into a house because of the icy roads. The ladder truck stopped on a steep, icy hill that hadn’t been treated yet. Three men were on Ladder Two.

“They had just gotten off the rig. They went to chalk the wheels and the truck slid down the hill, jack knifed and slid all the way down the hill sideways,” said a firefighter.

The ladder truck slid a whole block. Leonarda was very frightened and Jose was in tears.

“She grabbed her baby out of the car seat and ran and it smashed into a car which actually hit her car also,” said a firefighter.

As the fireman waited for the ladder truck to be repaired they got a distress call from a neighbor who ran out to say a man with a heart condition was in trouble so they had to tend to him as well.

Fortunately, there were no injuries.