In the images, a boy falls first into the crowd, as thick black smoke rises from the floor.
The other boy sits on the ledge for several seconds while the neighbors greet him. The boy jumps forward and is again caught by the crowd.
One of those who helped the children get to safety was Athoumani Walid, who told BFM TV that he heard screams from outside his window when he saw the two children trapped.
“The older one had a lot of courage and a lot of confidence. First he put his little brother. We took him in and said to the other: ‘Come on, jump, it’s your turn, jump,'” Walid said. .
“Then he climbed out the window, released him, and then we caught him again. None of them fell to the ground. No one was hurt.”
Walid added: “We saved their lives, but they made the right decision to do so. We had no choice, we had no way to go to them. They were the ones who came to us. They were the brave, they were the heroes.”
Grenoble Mayor Éric Piolle wrote on Facebook: “I would like to congratulate the people of Villeneuve who made a heroic rescue of two children trapped in their burning apartment today.”
Piolle added: “Hand in hand, they allowed the two little ones to come out of this drama unscathed.”
Authorities in the region have launched an investigation into possible negligence against the children’s parents, BFM reported.
The children were alone in the department because their mother had gone shopping and their father had gone to work, state prosecutor Éric Vaillant said, according to BFM.
“The mother had been absent around 11 am (5 am ET) when she went shopping and the dad had gone to work around 11.30. At first glance, the mom should have returned before the husband left, but he was a little late “The children were not allowed to be left alone,” added Vaillant.
Investigators took samples to determine the origin of the fire, which took place in the living room, BFM reported. A total of 14 people were poisoned by smoke fumes and two firefighters were slightly injured.
The scene resembled the rescue of a child in 2018 by so-called “Spiderman” Mamoudou Gassama, a young Malian migrant who scaled several floors of an apartment complex to rescue a child hanging from a balcony.
CNN’s Pierre-Eliott Buet, Pierre Bairin and Niamh Kennedy contributed to this report.
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