Two young brothers were saved from a fire in an apartment in the French city of Grenoble after falling about 10 meters (33 feet) from a window before being caught by people in the street below.
The 10-and-three-year-old couple were unharmed by Tuesday’s fall, but could have suffered smoke inhalation, French media reported.
Video of the dramatic rescue showed that the younger brother was thrown from at least three stories up when black smoke came out of the window and flames engulfed an adjacent balcony. While the spectators screamed, the older brother hung himself from the window and dropped into the arms of those below.
The children were hospitalized along with 17 residents of the building, according to media reports. Four of the people who caught the children were also taken to the hospital to check if any bones fractured when they were caught.
Athoumani Walid, a 25-year-old student who suffered a broken wrist while helping to catch the children, said he heard screaming and went out to investigate after seeing the fire in his nearby apartment and rushed to help, along with four others. or five people. .
“We didn’t know what to do,” Walid told the AP on Wednesday. “We wanted to break the door but it was not possible.”
Then they went out and shouted at the children to throw themselves into their arms. Although she initially feared for the children, “when they jumped, the fear disappeared,” Walid said. “What mattered was catching them.”
Walid said he hoped the rescue would change perceptions of the Villeneuve de Grenoble neighborhood in southeastern France, which has a large immigrant population. “We are told it is a ‘sensitive’ neighborhood,” Walid said, “but yesterday we demonstrated that we are here for each other, and we save each other.”
Mayor Éric Piolle congratulated residents on the rescue, which he said underlined the city’s “tradition of solidarity and mutual aid”.
In May 2018, a Mali man rescued a boy hanging from a balcony and offered him French citizenship. The rescue video showed Mamoudou Gassama, 22, climbing four floors around the outside of the building in just seconds to rescue the boy, amid cheers from onlookers. By the time the Parisian emergency services arrived, he had already taken the boy to safety.
.
