CNN ran an amateur video from Milwaukee, WI, where several people from the neighborhood, including 2 fire department employees, rushed to the rescue of a mother and her 2 children.
The story, as related by the Herald Sun:
A MOTHER and her two children are lucky to be alive after being pulled from their burning vehicle by off-duty firefighters and bystanders in the US.
The 32-year-old mother was driving the SUV on Milwaukee's south side Sunday when the vehicle crashed, flipped on its side and caught fire, police said.
Videotape of the dramatic rescue shot by a bystander shows two men using metal pipes to break the windshield, freeing the woman and her 2-year-old daughter, the New York Post reports.
The woman's 4-year-old son was still trapped inside. Two brothers, who are off-duty firefighters, tried pulling the boy from the burning vehicle.
One of the brothers, John Rechlitz, said he couldn't find the seat belt release to free the boy from his car seat.
"When I pulled out of the vehicle to call for a knife, he stopped crying. I thought we had lost him. When I started cutting (the seat belt), he started crying again," Rechlitz said.
Joel Rechlitz and a police officer used fire extinguishers to hold back the fire as John Rechlitz worked to free the child.
Police and fire officials say the boy suffered burns to 30 percent of his body and is hospitalized at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin. The Rechlitz brothers were treated for burns to their hands and arms.
No comments:
Post a Comment