A man identified as Philip Blanks has according to a video making the rounds online, save a 3-year-old-baby after she was thrown from the third floor of a building.
The 28-year old man is being hailed as a hero. Philip is a former college wide receiver and retired U.S. Marine.
The video showed when he dived to catch the 3-year-old boy as he was dropped from the balcony of the burning third-floor apartment in Phoenix, Arizona, United States of America.
According to Blanks, he was going for a workout with a friend when he heard the screaming and quickly rushed to the building to catch the young child.
“People were screaming, ‘There are kids up there’ and to throw the kids down. I saw another guy was standing there ready to catch the boy, but he didn’t look like he was going to do it, so I stepped in front of him,” he said.
Blanks, a former college wide receiver caught the boy and brought him to safety, the news outlet reported.
The toddler and his 8-year-old sister sustained severe injuries but unfortunately, their 30-year-old mother died in the flame, authorities told the Arizona Republic.
LIFESAVING CATCH: Eyewitness video shows Phillip Blanks – a former college wide receiver – sprint to the scene of a third-floor apartment fire in Phoenix before catching a small child thrown from a balcony; the mother of the child did not survive. https://t.co/CyIuiva87p pic.twitter.com/egzOxE5bFr
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) July 7, 2020