On June 14, 2017, just before 1 a.m., The Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, London England, caught fire. As many as 600 people were trapped in 120 apartments when the blaze raged through the apartment complex.
A team of 250 firefighters from about 40 fire engines did their best to control the blaze and save as many lives as possible, but the fire grew rapidly and the extreme heat kept Firefighters from entering the building.
First responders arrived within six minutes of the alarm sounding and stayed throughout the night and into the morning battling a blaze that has so far claimed the lives of 30 people.
One of the lucky survivors was a four-year-old girl whose desperate mother dropped her 50ft into the waiting arms of a stranger below.
When the fire alarm sounded in Grenfell Tower, most residents followed the "stay put" protocol, which, under normal circumstances, would have been sensible.
The protocol is in place because most modern fire doors would protect residents in their apartments long enough for firefighters to enter and rescue them. But this fire climbed up the sides of the building, spreading too quickly for the plan to work.
One man, known only as 'Pat' lived in the low-rise building beside Grenfell Tower and raced over when he noticed that desperate parents had begun dropping their children from the windows above.
The kind-hearted man, immediately leapt into action when he spotted a mother among the desperate residents calling for help through their windows.
Eyewitness, Kadelia Woods, told Channel 4 News that she watched as Pat responded to the terrified woman's screams:
"The mum was screaming and the fire was raging like crazy," she said, "Pat was calling: Drop her, I'll catch her."
At first the mother was to scared to drop her baby from such a great height - 50ft is a dangerous fall, especially for a four-year-old-girl.
Pat reassured her that he would catch the girl and then moments later, the mother let her go.
"Everyone's hearts stopped but Pat managed to catch her like a rugby ball tucked into his chest." He expertly caught her and cradled her against his chest as they sat, shellshocked, under a tree.
"She had a pink dressing gown on and she was just screaming hysterically for her mum," Woods told The Sun.
"The paramedics were trying to put an oxygen mask on her but she was just screaming and screaming. I don't think her mum survived. When I looked up again the whole floor was on fire."
Pat is now being hailed as "the Hero of Grenfell" for his selfless action.
Reports suggest that the fire may have been started by a faulty fridge, experts believe the fire got out of control because of cheap cladding panels that had recently been installed to "modernize the building."
