Teenager rescues toddler from Washington roof
Apr 30, 2012, 6:26 PM
VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) – A teen boy in Washington state was hailed Monday as a hero for pulling an 18-month-old child from the second-floor roof of an apartment building moments after his 2-year-old brother fell into a flower bed.
“That’s the type of quick-thinking kid I’d like to see in the sheriff’s office in 10 or 12 years,” Clark County sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Neiman said of 13-year-old Damon Davenport. “He sees the issue and jumps into action while others gawk.”
The children were supposed to be napping in their third-floor apartment Sunday when they climbed through a damaged screen onto a roof outside the window, authorities said.
Davenport was playing football nearby when he heard one child hit the ground.
“I heard a thump and I heard the baby cry.” the seventh-grader told The Columbian (
http://is.gd/UpIsOw).
He and others ran to the child before Davenport ran upstairs to get the child’s father. When they got back downstairs, the teenager noticed the new danger.
“Everybody said there’s another baby up there,'” Davenport recalled. “I ran and I opened the door and opened the window and pushed out the screen and grabbed the baby boy who was two inches from the edge.”
He handed the crying 18-month old to the father. The 2-year-old boy was checked at a hospital and sent home.
Neiman said the family of father Ben Buehler was fortunate the baby landed on soft earth instead of concrete. The family does not have a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment by The Associated Press.
The fire department plans to nominate Davenport for a lifesaving award.
“He’s quite the hero,” fire Capt. Scott Willis told The Columbian. “He did something a lot of kids his age wouldn’t have done. He’s very brave.”
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