ZHANGPING, China: Six individuals in southeastern China were named Good Samaritans by local authorities for risking their lives to save a little girl who was in danger of falling from a high-rise building.
The incident unfolded on the morning of October 17 in a residential community in Zhangping, Fujian province.
According to Xinhua, a resident shared a picture of a young girl in the community’s online chat group and urged security guards to help. The girl, about three years old, was shown hanging outside the window of her 12th-floor flat, with her neck caught between the window’s wire mesh.
The crying girl was facing inwards and was gripping the wires, meaning she could fall at any moment.
Chen Youjie, a security guard, rushed to the building where the girl lived and met resident Chen Wenshui, who had also come to help.
The two first knocked on the door of a flat above the girl’s home, but found that it was too far away to reach her from the 13th floor. The flat’s owner, Lin Bing, joined the rescue effort.
The trio then went to the 11th floor, where the flat’s owner, Lu Yangze, also readily offered his help.
Chen Youjie noticed that the girl’s face was turning dark, a sign that she was struggling to breathe. He climbed onto the 11th-floor window.
Standing on the windowsill, Chen Youjie held onto the window frame with one hand and used the other to hold a stool beneath the girl, trying to relieve the pressure on her neck.
He had no safety equipment during the rescue.
Meanwhile, Chen Wenshui stood beside the window and held Chen Youjie’s legs to keep him safe.
Two other residents, Chen Changyang and Zheng Weijiang, soon joined the rescue effort.
They held the stool from the other side of the window to support the girl.
“Every part of my body was exerting force. I had to support the girl while holding tightly to the window frame. I also had to pay attention to where I was stepping,” Chen Youjie recalled.
“Soon, I was sweating heavily, and my body couldn’t stop shivering,” he said.
The men took turns climbing out of the window to support the girl until firefighters arrived half an hour later.
Some of them even had a fear of heights. Lin said: “Normally, I would be afraid to climb onto the fifth or sixth floor. But when I saw the girl hanging outside the window, all I could think about was saving her.”
They also remembered to comfort the girl. “Baby, don’t cry or move. Uncles are trying to save you,” they told her. She gradually stopped crying and kicking wildly.
The firefighters broke down the door to the girl’s home and pulled her inside.
The girl’s parents were both away: her mother had gone grocery shopping, while her father was on duty.
It turned out that when the girl woke up and could not find her parents, she climbed onto the window to look for them.
The parents later presented red pennants to the security guard and five residents to thank them for their selfless actions.
In early November, the six men received Good Samaritan awards from the municipal public security authority.
“Salute to these good-hearted people!” one internet user wrote.
Another person said: “I hope her parents learn a lesson and don’t leave her alone again.” - South China Morning Post
