US Servicemembers Conduct Dramatic Rescue of Family From Burning Building Outside of Osan Airbase
Via a reader tip comes this dramatic rescue story of US servicemembers saving a Nigerian family from a burning building outside of Osan AB:
The scenario, captured in mobile phone footage, is a mother’s nightmare. On the fourth story of a burning building in Pyeongtaek, South Korea, a woman dangles her baby out the window as smoke billows from two floors below. Onlookers scream and wave their hands as the 30-year-old mother holds out the terrified infant — the child’s legs kicking furiously — before dropping her to the crowd. Another child follows, then another, before the woman herself leaps from the window — the only escape route. Remarkably, all survived without injury Saturday, caught safely on blankets in a rescue effort orchestrated by passing U.S. service personnel stationed at nearby Osan Air Base.
U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Daniel Raimondo told CNN he was walking to dinner Saturday when he saw clouds of smoke and set off in that direction. On assessing the scene, he and a colleague discussed how to help and resolved to get some blankets from a nearby store. They corralled others to help hold the blankets, then tried to persuade the mother to drop her children to safety. First Sgt. Melanie Scott said the woman was understandably reluctant to let go of her children, ages 1, 3 and 4.
“You could tell she was scared. She didn’t want to.” Raimondo said that the “last baby was the most difficult in my eyes, she just wouldn’t let her go for some reason.” He said he repeatedly begged the mother: “Please just throw the baby down!” “I remember her screaming (at) the baby, ‘I love you, I love you. …’ Next thing you know she dropped the baby.” [CNN]
