Video: Former College Football Wide Receiver Catches A Baby Thrown From A Burning Building
Phillip Blanks, a former college football wide receiver out of Kalamazoo Central, and retired marine, made the catch of his life yesterday when he caught a three year old boy thrown from a third-floor balcony. The apartment was engulfed in flames and the child was only seconds away from certain death. Unfortunately the mother did not survive.
He said he was going for a workout with a friend who lived next door to the apartment when he heard the screaming and quickly rushed to the building to catch a young child he says was “twirling like a helicopter” as he fell to the ground.
“People were screaming, ‘There are kids up there’ and to throw the kids down. I saw another guy was standing there ready to catch the boy, but he didn’t look like he was going to do it, so I stepped in front of him.”
The former college wide receiver caught the boy and brought him to safety. The toddler and his 8-year-old sister suffered critical injuries but their 30-year-old mother died in the blaze, authorities told the Arizona Republic.
LIFESAVING CATCH: Eyewitness video shows Phillip Blanks – a former college wide receiver – sprint to the scene of a third-floor apartment fire in Phoenix before catching a small child thrown from a balcony; the mother of the child did not survive. https://t.co/CyIuiva87p pic.twitter.com/egzOxE5bFr
— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) July 7, 2020