A heroic fireman waiting by a window caught a suicidal woman in his arms as she jumped from the building.
The video was posted on Facebook by the Latvian fire service and has since been shared thousands of times.
Identified as Tomass Jaunzems, the fireman said he’d arrived at the property to reports of a woman sat on a window ledge on the fourth floor.
Watch the video here:
In the footage Jaunzems is shown leaning out of the window and looking up while supported by a colleague.
Seconds later, you see the fireman leaning forward and somehow managing to grab hold of the woman before pulling her into the building.
In the footage Jaunzems is shown leaning out of the window and looking up while supported by a colleague.
Seconds later, you see the fireman leaning forward and somehow managing to grab hold of the woman before pulling her into the building.
He told local media, Skaties (translated by Google):
The second order was for me – go to the third floor. If anything, try to capture this woman, if she decides to jump.
According to the site, the woman was ‘immediately transferred to the hands of the medical staff’.
Jaunzems and his colleague have seen their quick-thinking actions praised by the head of the State Fire and Rescue Service, and the Minister of the Interior.
Writing about the call, the fire service wrote (translated):
During the weekend, the VUGD received a call to a multi-apartment building where there was a suspicion that a person was going to jump through the fourth floor window. When arriving at the scene, firefighters rescuers realised that if they were trying to get into the apartment, one would most likely jump over the window.
Thanks to the neighbours’ response, firefighter rescuers could enter the floor in the apartment below and prepare to grab this person in a fall. While one firefighter rescuer was waiting for a fall at the window, the other ensured that the interceptors could rescue the falling person firmly. Meanwhile, firefighters with mountaineering equipment tried to access people on the sill from the roof of the building, but the rescuers noticed that human hands had fallen and dropped. [sic]
One person commenting on the video said it’s amazing the woman had been given a ‘second chance at life’ (translated):
These moments actually inspire when you realise that there are people between us who you don’t care about and they’ll do everything to save someone because it’s their life mission.
Here you should not condemn the [person who wanted to end their life] because we do not know how we would act in their place with such a tragic life, every metal has its own melting temperature, but from the heart thank you, such people who give you another chance to change your life.
Minister Oskars Abolins, responsible for the fire service, issued a powerful statement praising the firefighters.
He said:
Our work is a very important aspect of courage and self-respect, therefore, the actions of those rescuers of these firefighters and the ability to think beyond the usual frames are worthy of praise, as a result of which human life was saved.
Amazing, what an absolute hero.