When a home caught fire in Boston’s Hyde Park on Sunday, one person at the scene jumped into action to save an infant.
Firefighters arrived at the house on Norton Street early that morning to find dark smoke and flames billowing out the rear of the building, NBC Boston reported.
The fire began on the back porch, then crawled up to the second floor, eventually reaching the roof, Boston Fire Department officials explained.
Authorities shared photos of crews working to douse the blaze from outside the damaged home:
Officials said an off-duty firefighter who lives in the building was there to catch a baby when a mother dropped her from the second-floor window in an effort to save the child’s life.
Moments later, the mother also leaped from the window.
NBC’s Michael Rosenfield shared a picture of the family, including the one-year-old baby girl:
After the incident, the firefighter received praise for his actions, according to WCVB.
“The fact that he went to the location where the baby was, where the woman was — it was amazing that he got there as fast as he did with the fire conditions around and the smoke conditions in the room where the woman was with the infant. That he got there just in the nick of time, and she dropped the baby down to him,” said Commissioner Paul Burke of the Boston Fire Department.
The baby was reportedly fine after the incident. However, her parents were taken to the hospital for treatment, and seven others were displaced, according to CBS Boston.
“One of those things. You wake up in the morning, and you’re not sure what’s going to happen and, like I said, he made a lot of fast decisions and they were good decisions,” firefighter Brian Alkins said of the rescuer who ran back into his own unit to get his family out to safety.
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