MESA, Ariz. — Bystanders worked together to lower two young children to safety from a third-floor apartment in a suburban Phoenix complex where nearby units were on fire.
The rescue took place Monday in Mesa after bystanders heard Joelle Rozell, the mother of the children, scream from a balcony that her children were with her.
The family had taken refuge on the balcony because there was too much smoke and heat in a hallway leading to their apartment, fire Capt. Craig Chenery said.
Ryan Heidenreich climbed to the apartment from a second-story unit and straddled a railing while lowering the 11-month-old boy and 4-year-old girl to Christopher Sumlin on a balcony below. The children were then handed off to another man.
"He just dropped them down, and I grabbed them, handed them off to him and then it's time to go," Sumlin, 34, said.
Kevin Andrews, 24, the man at the end of three-person chain, said he felt compelled to act because he would have wanted somebody to help his child in such circumstances.
"I just happened to be there. I wanted to help the kids," Andrews said
Arriving firefighters helped Rozell make it to safety through an exterior hallway.
