They say everything happens in threes.

Recently, a number of incidents have taken place around the world involving children falling or jumping from buildings into the arms of quick-thinking people on the ground.

Early in July, Phillip Blanks, a former football player and US Marine, was in the right place at the right time when a building caught fire, forcing a mother to drop her child off a third-floor balcony to save him.

Forget football, this was the most impressive catch of Blanks’ career.

More recently, in China’s Jiangsu Province, people watched on in horror as a two-year-old climbed out of a window at an apartment block and onto an air-conditioner unit before falling into the arms of Li Dehai, standing below.

(This isn’t the first child to fall from a balcony in China only to be saved by neighbours below.)

Two stories of children caught from great heights in one month was already a weird coincidence. Now there’s a third, also involving a burning building.

ABC reports:

Two boys have been saved from an apartment fire in France when they dropped about 10 metres from a window and were caught by people below.

The brothers, aged 10 and 3, were unharmed by the fall but might have suffered from smoke inhalation, French media reported.

It’s harrowing to watch:

17 residents, including the children, were taken to a nearby hospital for treatment along with the four people who worked together to catch the boys.

Athoumani Walid, a 25-year-old student who suffered a broken wrist from helping catch the children, said he heard screams and went out to investigate after seeing the fire from his nearby apartment, rushing to help along with four or five other people.

“We didn’t know what to do. We wanted to break the door but it wasn’t possible,” Mr Walid said.

They then went outside and shouted for the boys to jump into their arms.

Perhaps one of the saddest elements of this story is the hope from Walid that the rescue will change perceptions of the neighbourhood, which is heavily policed because it’s home to a large immigrant population.

“We are told it’s a ‘sensitive’ neighbourhood, but we showed we are here for each other, and we save each other”, he said.

They deserve more than just the thanks they received from the mayor, Eric Piolle.

[source:abc]