I’m happy to say I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve encountered a small child hanging precariously from a balcony, so I can’t say exactly how I’d react. I’m sure I’d make some sort of effort to put myself in a position to catch the kid in the event that they fall, but based on my consistent inability to reel in a pop fly back in Little League, I think the smarter option would be to call 911 and hope someone with better hand-eye coordination shows up in time.
I can firmly say that “scaling the building and rescuing the child before becoming a national hero” would not be one of the things that would cross my mind in that situation. I don’t know if Mamoudou Gassama really cared about that last part, but after he came across a toddler dangling from a building in Paris over the weekend, he jumped into action and scaled four stories like a Ninja Warrior on angel dust to save the day.
Someone lacking the physical dexterity and the testicular fortitude to do what Gassama documented the rescue in an absolutely wild clip.
Gassama had come from Mali to France as an undocumented immigrant a few months ago, but after the clip exploded online, French President Emmanuel Macon immediately offered to meet with him and guaranteed him a path to citizenship, which would include a gig with the Paris Fire Brigade.
It’s unclear if Gassama will be trained in the more traditional ways of firefighting or if Paris is about to have a group of rescuers straight out of the opening scene of Casino Royale. Let’s all hope it’s the latter.