Firefighter Sees Divine Intervention After Catching Baby From Burning Building
A firefighter from DeKalb County, Georgia is being hailed a hero for saving the life of a baby, but he is deflecting credit, saying it was divine intervention.
When fire broke out last week at a two-story apartment complex in Decatur, Georgia, firefighter Robert Sutton happened to be at the right place at the right time when a resident tossed a baby from a second-floor window as the fire was raging.
Sutton caught the infant and took her to the medical unit before hurrying back to the building to help the baby's father climb out the window, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
"Anybody would've done what I did," the 31-year-old firefighter said later. "I got lucky. Really, I was blessed."
Sutton said he had never anticipated being in this type of situation, saying there is no throwing of babies simulated in firefighter training in DeKalb County, according to ABC News.
Captain Eric Jackson, the Kalb Country fire department spokesman, said what Sutton did was heroic and that he deserves all the accolades. "For a firefighter to be where he was and be keenly aware ... when the gentleman dropped the baby, he dropped him right into his arms," he said.
Sutton was just filling in for another firefighter that Tuesday evening when dispatch radioed a fire incident.
Rushing to the scene, he saw a frantic man, screaming, "I got a baby, I got a baby!"
Sutton ran toward the building and yelled for the man to drop the child.
The man did, and Sutton caught her, in a scene that was captured in a video taken by a contract plumber doing work in the building next door.
The next day, Sutton's heroic act was all over the news, not only in Georgia but throughout America and the rest of the world as well.
After receiving numerous congratulatory messages from national and international sources, Sutton went back to work Friday, humbled by the experience.
"If I could save a baby every day," he said, "I would."
