Uncle Drops Nephew Out of 4 story Apartment Building Window

by Swan | February 7, 2008 at 12:27 pm | 373 views | 2 comments

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LUDWIGSHAFEN, Germany (CNN) -- Kamil Kaplan faced a horrifying decision as flames engulfed his apartment building: Does he drop his 9-month-old nephew four stories to a policeman or hope the baby boy survives the suffocating smoke?

Nine people went to their fiery deaths last night, one of whom was Kamil Kaplan's other little nephew.

Knowing that he couldn't save any of the others, he focused on little Onur, tearing him from his mother's arms, as he ran to the window.

"She and the father were screaming: 'Don't do it! Don't do it!' But I didn't listen." [...] "It was terrible. I just had to make a decision," he told CNN

As he held the baby in his arms, Kaplan had felt that he could trust the policeman by looking into his eyes. Perhaps there really is a look that conveys undoubtedly and honestly to someone that "you can trust me with your baby's life," - perhaps at that moment, that truth becomes almost palpable and real in the brief seconds as you and your loved ones look Death in the eye.

The blaze which consumed the apartment building in Ludwigshafen, taking the lives of three other children began during Carnival celebrations. Investigators still haven't ruled out arson as the cause of the fire.

It wouldn't be the first time that the building had been the target of violence. Two years ago, someone had thrown a molotov cocktail in the same building, which houses several Turkish immigrant families.

"If the cop wouldn't have been standing down there," he [Kaplan] said. "I would have just taken the boy and jumped down with him in my arms to save him."

See movie: news report and fire.

See movie: Kaplan describing scene.

See photos: baby thrown to safety.

Sources:

CNN.com/Europe

Uncle who dropped boy to save him: 'It was terrible' by Frederik Pleitgen

Image Sources:
AFP Getty Images