Whew, the bravery!! When it’s crunch time it’s crunch time and you never know what one might do when they find their loved ones in a potential life threatening situation.
The Westpark Apartments on Holden Street in Philadelphia started filling up with smoke as there was a fire within the building.
35-year-old Jermaine got a call from his sister who told him that their mother, 65-year-old Sheila, who is bed-ridden, couldn’t get out of her 15th floor apartment.
Jermaine went right over there and reportedly tried to go through the front door at first but the police wouldn’t let him through.
“They said the elevators are not working. I said, ‘No problem. I’ll take the steps. I just want to make sure my mother- my mother is sick, she’s bed-ridden. So I need to get up there,” he tells @abcnews. “They were like, ‘We can’t let you in.’ I took it upon myself because that’s my mother. There’s no limits. That’s my mother.”
Jermaine was actually using a pair of crutches as he’d cracked his hip when he fell on a set of stairs earlier that day. Although he was injured, he says his adrenaline took over.
“All for my mom’s safety, period. I wasn’t worried about mine at all. She can’t get out of the bed or walk around so if there’s a fire she needs help out,” he said.
Once Jermaine made it up to his mum’s balcony on the 15th floor, she was in shock that her son climbed up the building. Once his mum assured him that he was fine and the fire had been contained, he climbed back down to ground level.
Jermaine thought he’d be arrested for his actions but a police officer gave him a break and let him go.
“He told me if I didn’t leave I was going straight to jail. Because that was his job. But, he actually did cut me a break. He understood the circumstances, he knew – when your adrenaline is pumping, and your mom is up there, you think she’s dying – you’d do anything you can,” Jermaine said.
Jermaine, his mum, and other residents made it out safely as the building was evacuated. Four civilians and three firefighters were reportedly treated for smoke inhalation.
