(Photo credit: ABC6.com)
Thirty-five-year-old West Philadelphia resident Jermaine has experience being on top of buildings. He was a roofer, a construction worker, and grew up being an adventurous child running, jumping and climbing. He even tried out to be a firefighter but never heard anything back. But little did he know he was going to use that experience to save the life of someone he holds near and dear to his heart.
It was a Thursday night when the 19-story Westpark Apartments high-rise in Philadelphia started filling with smoke, Jermaine got a call from his sister that their mother, 65-year-old Sheila, who is bed-ridden, couldn’t get out of her 15th-floor apartment.
With hesitation, Jermaine rushed over to the scene. But when he got there and tried to go up to get his mom, the entryway was blocked by police.
“They said the elevators are not working. I said, ‘No problem. I’ll take the steps. I just want to make sure my mother- my mother is sick, she’s bed-ridden. So I need to get up there,” Jermaine said in an exclusive interview with ABC affiliate Channel 6 Action News. “They were like ‘we can’t let you in.’ I took it upon myself because that’s my mother. There are no limits. That’s my mother.”
Jermaine started to scale the fenced-in balconies of the building, with wire cutters in hand. He was already familiar with the layout of the complex because he had lived there in the past.
But get this: earlier that day, Jermaine fell and cracked his hip on a set of stairs. His actually had crutches that he was supposed to use just to walk. But none of that mattered when it come to his mom.
“When I grabbed a gate, at the top of the gate, there was a ledge. Then I could step on top of the ledge and reach up to the other gate, and keep climbing my way up,” Jermaine said.
“All for my mom’s safety, period. I wasn’t worried about mine at all. She can’t get out of the bed or walk around so if there’s a fire she needs help out,” he said.
He made it all the way to his mom’s balcony. Once there, Shelia saw her son outside her 15th floor apartment and assured him she was doing OK. She told him the fire was contained.
Jermaine said his mother did not yell at him for climbing up 15 stories, but, “She was more shocked. She’s not surprised by the things that I do for her. She knows I’ll go over and beyond for her.”
Then just as quickly as he got up, he scaled back down the building. When he got close to ground level, he was sure he’d be arrested. But an understanding officer let Jermaine go.
“He told me if I didn’t leave I was going straight to jail. Because that was his job. But, he actually did cut me a break. He understood the circumstances, he knew – when your adrenaline is pumping, and your mom is up there, you’re thinking she’s dying – you’d do anything you can,” Jermaine said.
Jermaine’s mother made it out safely, as did many residents. Four civilians and three firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation.
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