The last thing a mother would do is to throw her baby off a balcony, but what if it was the only way to save him?
Phillip Blanks was inside his house in July when he heard a commotion outside.
He was about to become a hero.
He thought there was a disturbance or a fight, so he went out to take a look.
Then he heard someone yell fire.
Blanks was on the move.
Still barefoot, Blanks ran to the location of the commotion. That’s when he saw the third floor of the building burning.
In a split second, he saw a woman engulfed in fire, trying to throw her 3-year-old boy off the balcony to save him.
He ran as fast as he could.
He knew what was about to happen, and before he could process everything that was going on, he was already hugging the terrified toddler in his arms.
Phillip Blanks said in his interview with ABC7 that he was raised to help others.
He also served in the U.S. Marines
He is currently working in the security industry, which seems to be a perfect choice of profession for him.
The 28-year-old hero said that he used to play as a wide receiver at a college in Southern California. He loved his sport, but he never imagined he would use his skills to save a life.
It was his greatest catch of all time.
It is the one he will never forget for the rest of his life.
People were surprised by what he did. They all felt so amazed by what he had done. Looking back, he was also shocked when he saw the video.
“Instinct. There wasn’t much thinking. I just reacted. I just did it,” Blanks told in his interview with Eyewitness News.
He knew he had trained all his life for moments like this, but when you’re in that moment, it’s all instinct.
“He was twirling in the air like a propeller,” he recalled. “I just did my best. His head landed perfectly on my elbow. His ankle got twisted up as I was diving. The guy who was there with me – it looked like he wasn’t going to catch him. So that’s why I stepped in. I just wanted to make a better catch.”
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Can you imagine what could have happened if he wasn’t there?
Aside from the little boy, his older sister, an eight-year-old girl, was also saved. She was rescued by D’Artagnan Alexander, 42 years old, also a bystander. He ran into the building to save the girl.
The children were admitted to the hospital.
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According to the firefighters, they suffered burns, but they expected them to survive.
For Blanks, he wasn’t a hero.
He just did what he needed to do at that moment.
A mother’s love.
Blanks said there was only one hero in this story.
“She’s the real hero of the story,” Blanks said, referring to the mother. “Because she made the ultimate sacrifice to save her children.”
What happened to the mother was heart-wrenching.
She sacrificed herself to save them.
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She was already burning, but she managed to save her children with her last breath. As painful as it is, the kids survived, and they will forever know how much their mother loved them.
Watch Blank’s heroic catch in the video below.
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