# Baby hurled from blazing flat out of third-floor window is caught by policeman



## Cinderella (Jun 17, 2005)

*Baby hurled from blazing flat out of third-floor window is caught by policeman*

This is the heart-stopping moment when a two-year-old boy was thrown from a third-floor window to escape a deadly fire.

He hurtled through billowing smoke to land safely in the arms of a policeman 40ft below. 
His parents took their desperate gamble as flames tore through a block of flats in the southern German town of Ludwigshafen. Last night it was not known whether they also escaped the blaze, which killed at least nine people, including five children.

A further 60 were injured. Two more children survived by huddling behind a sofa. Police are investigating whether the disaster was an arson attack by neo-Nazis, as most of the families in the building were Turkish. 
There was a similar blaze at a refugee hostel in the town eight years ago. As well as the 52 residents, the four-storey block was packed with friends and relatives watching a street festival on Sunday afternoon. 
The blaze broke out on the first floor and fire officials said the wooden stairs acted like a chimney, drawing flames upwards. 
"It would have been like a blast furnace," said one. Web designer Rene Werse, 43, who took the picture of the falling boy, said: "I saw things that I shall never forget. There were people on their balconies and at their windows, screaming to get out. It was hell."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...ews.html?in_article_id=512219&in_page_id=1811


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## screamineagle (Jul 11, 2005)

nice catch!


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Baby Hurled 4 Stories To Escape Burning Building








House residents throw a baby to awaiting members of the fire brigade (not seen in picture) during a fire in an apartment building Feb. 3, 2008, in the western German town of Ludwigshafen which resulted in the death of nine people including five children. Rene Werse/AFP/Getty Images








Firefighters rescue a baby from a burning apartment in the western German town of Ludwigshafen Feb. 3, 2008. Rene Werse/AFP/Getty Images








Residents waiting to be rescued from a burning apartment in the western German town of Ludwigshafen hand a baby to a man Feb. 3, 2008. Rene Werse/AFP/Getty Images








A man clings to a window ledge as house residents pass a baby to police officer during a fire in an apartment building Feb. 3, 2008 in the western German town of Ludwigshafen, which resulted killed 14 people and injured 28 others. Rene Werse/AFP/Getty Images

LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany (CBS) ― Trapped by smoke, the parents of a nine-month-old baby girl faced an excruciating dilemma: if they threw her out of the window, would she be caught four stories below?

The split-second decision paid off: Onur fell safely into the arms of a policeman below. The parents also survived, although the mother was still in a hospital Tuesday, two days after the blaze that killed nine people, including five children.

CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports flames were sweeping through a crowded apartment block in the western German town of Ludwigshafen, sending stranded people to windows to gasp for air.

The drama at a building in southwestern Germany was captured in a series of photographs of the baby in freefall as a group of anguished adults, thick smoke billowing around them, looked on.

The building was home to Turkish immigrants, and Turkey's prime minister expressed concern Tuesday about possible arson. A small girl told Germany's RTL television that she saw a man setting fire to something in the building.

"We want the incident to be enlightened as soon as possible," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, adding he hoped "there was nothing based on hostility toward foreigners."

Erdogan said a government official and four Turkish police officers would visit the scene of the fire.

With the staircase destroyed by flames, adults also jumped for their lives while others formed human ladders to help save people trapped inside, police and rescue workers said. Children from lower floors were handed to rescue workers atop an ambulance.

Some who jumped missed rescue nets laid out by police.

"The scenes were so terrible that some of the forces deployed wanted to give up their jobs afterward," police chief Wolfgang Fromm said.

The fire broke out during carnival celebrations in the city.

Rescue officers and investigators were still unable to enter the four-story building Tuesday because of the danger it might collapse. Police spokesman Michael Lindner said he could not rule out further victims, "but we hope we will not find any more people dead."

Police say that two Turkish families lived in the building, and that 24 people in total were registered as living there. It was unclear exactly how many people were in the house at the time.

Police spokeswoman Simone Eisenbarth did not release the name of the policeman who caught the child, but said she was injured after she fell to the ground and struck her head. She was treated at a hospital and released.

http://wbztv.com/national/baby.thrown.fire.2.646150.html


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## kttref (Oct 5, 2004)

The news is reporting a firefighter caught the baby...cops just can't win.


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

Slide show: http://abcnews.go.com/International/popup?id=4242999&contentIndex=1&page=1


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## lpwpd722 (Jun 13, 2006)

What a decision that poor family had to make. I'm glad they were couragous enough to make the right one. It could have worked both ways.


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