Man Dropped Baby Out of the Window of a Burning Apartment



If you and your family were trapped in a burning apartment building several stories above street-level, would you drop your baby over the window to save him? Which would you risk: the baby falling to his death or watching him suffocate in the heavy smoke?

That’s the dilemma that Kamil Kaplan faced when he dropped his 9-month-old nephew four stories into the waiting arms of a policeman:

Kamil Kaplan faced a horrifying decision as flames engulfed his apartment building: Does he drop his 9-month-old nephew four stories to a policeman or hope the baby boy survives the suffocating smoke?

Kaplan chose to drop the boy, Onur Celar — a dramatic life-saving moment captured in photographs seen around the world. "It was terrible. I just had to make a decision," he told CNN. The smoke and flames were becoming unbearable. It was now or never.

"I took the child from my sister, the mother," he said. "She and the father were screaming: ‘Don’t do it! Don’t do it!’ But I didn’t listen." He added, "I looked into the eyes of the policeman below, and I knew I could trust him."

Though the baby survived, the story didn’t have a completely happy ending: the older brother was killed in the fire and the father was badly injured and remains hospitalized.

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Posted on February 7, 2008 at 3:09 am by Alex
Category: Baby & Kid

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5 comments to "Man Dropped Baby Out of the Window of a Burning Apartment"

  • su.wei
    February 7th, 2008 at 5:31 am

    man, i cant imagine how terrifying that must have been for the baby, and the family.

  • cyberfreak77
    February 7th, 2008 at 10:07 am

    Really sad that they now blame the firefighters and in fact bashed one of them….

  • G
    February 7th, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    I assume the firefighters are trained for situations like that? Babies are so resilient and squishy (handling them is still a gentle process of course). But I would worry about those tiny lungs in the smoke.

    That’s not to say seeing those things don’t freak me out. I was crying harder than my daughter was the first time she bumped her head, LOL!

  • G
    February 7th, 2008 at 12:10 pm

    wow…my comment came out different than I thought. Ha, of course they are trained for rescuing babies! Der! I had such a huge brain fart!

  • Chad
    February 7th, 2008 at 10:57 pm

    I would have easily made the same decision. given the choice for my child to die in an extremely painful death by fire or a quick instant death by sudden impact I would definetly choose the latter. now the fact that there was a policeman waiting to catch the child further drives home the fact that this kid had a MUCH better chance with the fall.

    I hope I never have to make a choice like that though


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