A mom trapped in a Bronx fire that killed 19 individuals and hurt dozens nearly lost hope she and her children would be rescued, NBC New York reported Monday.
However, a stranger took quick action to save them.
Fatima Wood explained she and her little children were trying to exit the 19-story building as smoke engulfed the hallways, and the family was attempting to come down from the ninth floor.
Approximately 200 FDNY members are operating on scene of a 5-alarm fire at 333 East 181 Street in the Bronx. There are currently 31 serious injuries to civilians. pic.twitter.com/yrTYwOfonH
— FDNY (@FDNY) January 9, 2022
The group believed they were trapped but that was the moment they found a stairwell and a neighbor they did not know offered to assist them.
“Me and that man had bumped into each other, he asked if we needed help bringing the kids down. I said yea, so he grabbed my daughter,” Wood recalled.
The person was Mohamed Keita, who lived near the top of the building and just as their other neighbors, was going down the stairwell trying to escape.
While trying to save his own life, he did not hesitate to offer assistance in the woman’s moment of need.
The man said he carried the three-year-old girl to safety and found an ambulance before her relatives got out of the building.
“As soon as I got down, the kid was cold, she didn’t have enough clothes. So I took off my jacket and I wrapped her in my jacket,” Keita noted.
“I was sitting down, shaking. People were just going through, they couldn’t breathe, they were performing CPR, cardiac arrest,” he recalled of the scene. “I’ve never seen something like it, so I was just shaking the whole time.”
Keita and the girl, Kween, were transported to St. Barnabas Hospital and are expected to be fine. The pair were out of the hospital late Sunday, and Kween was back in her mother’s arms.
“I cried all day, even when we got here (to the hospital) and we finally see her, I was still crying because it’s so traumatizing,” Wood commented.
The fire that killed 19 people reportedly began with a malfunctioning electric space heater, however, the smoke that took many of the individual’s lives spread because the burning apartment’s door had not been shut as people exited, according to NBC.
Video showed firefighters at the scene:
Meanwhile, Keita was not trying to be a hero.
“I was just trying to do the right thing. Everybody was struggling, lots of people lost their lives, I was just trying to do the right thing,” Keita told reporters.
Wood stated she “can’t wait to see (Keita), to show him how grateful I am,” and the two neighbors reconnected late Sunday.
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