Young Swede saves family
A 23-year-old man from Sweden proved to be nothing less than a hero during the night, when he spotted an Oslo apartment on fire, broke in and rescued three children and their mother. The fire inside a flat in Oslo's Vålerenga district forced the evacuation of more than 20 persons. PHOTO: DANIEL DALE LAABAK |
Tobias Andersson was walking down Vålerenggata on Oslo's east side when he saw smoke coming out of a first-floor flat.
He jumped up on the flat's balcony, broke though its glass door and entered the smoke-filled flat.
Risking his own life, he went from room to room and found a 13-year-old girl, two boys aged six and three and their 35-year-old mother. "I guess I was scared, but that wasn't anything to think about," Andersson told VG Nett Monday afternoon. "I was preoccupied with getting hold of one of the children. She cried and screamed and I just wanted to get to her."
The mother had woken up and was standing near a window with the two other children. Andersson says he simply did what he felt he had to do.
"It's a good feeling, but I haven't had much time to think about it yet," he said. "It will probably sink in during the day."
'An angel walked by'
Neighbour Marit Wiik said she was awakened by other neighbours pounding on the door at 3am. "When we got out, smoke was pouring out of the flat and firefighters were on their way in," she said.
She described Andersson's efforts as "a miracle." He was "an angel who walked by. It's a miracle, he saved four lives," she said.
Police agreed. "There are all indications he saved the lives of the mother, her daughter and the two sons," Finn Belle, operations leader for the Oslo Police District, told new bureau NTB.
The family of four and Andersson were all sent to a local hospital, where they were recovering on Monday from smoke inhalation.
"The family was sleeping when the man got into their smoke-filled home," Belle said. "It appears the flat's smoke detector wasn't working."
The smoke was reportedly so thick that Andersson had to creep on the floor in his efforts to rescue the occupants. It's likely they would have been overcome by the smoke in their sleep if he hadn't broken in.
Firefighters ended up evacuating 21 other persons from the building. The fire was believed to have started in the kitchen.
Nina Berglund
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