Stranger running for his life stops midway to save a 3-year-old girl from a catastrophic fire
Living in cramped apartment complexes means coexisting with various risks. One of them happens to be unexpected fire breakouts. In 2022, a destructive fire broke out at a highrise building in The Bronx, New York, per the reports of ABC7 New York. There were several cases of fatalities but a 3-year-old was fortunate to escape from the flames with the help of a brave neighbor. The toddler named Kween Wood was rescued by a man, Mahamed Keita, while he was trying to save his own life.
Even though the little girl had never met Keita, she trusted him with her life when he came to rescue her from the spreading fire. Keita climbed the soot-covered stairs to reach the apartment of the Wood family. The third floor of the Twin Peaks North West building was engulfed by the flames and Keita could hardly make his way through it from his upstairs residence. "People in the staircase trapped, they couldn't move, I can't see, people yelling, screaming, can't see anything," Keita, a resident on the 19th floor of the building, recalled to the news outlet.
When Keita was trying to save his own life, he heard a woman crying out for help. "She was screaming, she was crying, 'Help, I need help. Please help me.' She had two kids and she couldn't breathe so she was like, 'Please help me, I have two kids.' Then I was like, 'Give me one and hold my hand. I gave out my hand and she gave me one of the kids. I told them to follow me," Keita said. Carrying the little girl, Keita made his way downstairs to safety but got separated from the mom on the way. "We were trapped on the sixth floor. It was a good thing, one of my neighbor's apartment doors was open. So we just went into his apartment," Fatima, the mom of the toddler, mentioned.
While the flames were dancing inside the building, the temperature had dropped outside. "I took off my jacket. I only had one jacket and put it on the baby. The baby didn't have a coat or shoes. I put my jacket around her," Keita told the outlet. "When I looked out the window I saw Mahamed holding Kween outside so I was like thank god they made it," Fatima remarked. The little girl was brought to safety and then put under the care of emergency medical responders to make sure she was okay. Wood reunited with Fatima at St. Barnabas Hospital that afternoon.
"My mom always told me to do the right thing. If you know you can help someone don't hesitate," Keita shared. Fatima was interviewed by NBC New York after the incident and the mom revealed how traumatizing it was for her. However, she was thankful for what Keita did to save her toddler. "This time, everybody was struggling and a lot of people lost their lives," Keita told the news channel as he appeared visibly shaken from the entire ordeal. According to CNN, the Red Cross provided emergency housing to 22 families, consisting of 56 adults and 25 children. Most of the residents of the building were revealed to be Gambian.