Your Obligatory Feel Good Story

Fireman catches baby dropped from third-story window:

With heavy smoke billowing from the windows of the apartment building and the size of the fire inside unknown, Knoxville Senior Firefighter Eric “Bo” Merritt said he could only see one option – the father would have to drop the baby from the window.

Merritt made the “once-in-a-lifetime” catch to save the life of the one-month-old boy, who was among dozens of residents inside the Lakewood Building at Magnolia Apartments, 2730 E. Magnolia Ave., in East Knoxville when someone set a fire in the rear stairwell Sunday morning….”So before we even got the ladders set up, I told him to drop it – and hope for the best. He thought about it for a second and I guess he realized, too, that was the best option. I didn’t know how bad it was on the inside, if the fire was growing or not, so I didn’t want to take the chance of the baby staying up there.”

On the one hand, I love a good “saving the baby” story.

On the other – everyone else got out – right?

3 thoughts on “Your Obligatory Feel Good Story

  1. The baby probably weighed in about 10 lbs or so, and coming at you from 25 – 30 feet up. Heck of a catch!

  2. While I am happy the baby is fine, it appears from the story that the tossing of the baby was an unnecessary risk at the point in time it happened.

  3. Loren, perhaps true, but I’m willing to cut the guy some slack because he felt flames/smoke at his back. Maybe a chance to train firefighters better?

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