This week, Jeffrey Cruz was working from home in his apartment in Colombia when he suddenly heard the sound of someone shouting. He leapt from his seat to find out what was going on.
“I went out and heard screaming upstairs,” Cruz told The Dodo. “I could see flames.”
A fire had broken out in the apartment directly above Cruz’s — and two souls were trapped inside.
With no way of safely entering the burning apartment via the door, Cruz rushed to his window. From there, he could see a teenage girl above him, gasping for air amid a thick cloud of smoke.
“I saw her looking out,” Cruz said. “At that moment, a young man who’d seen the fire from the street rushed up to my apartment. In a matter of seconds, we decided he would lean out to help her as I held him.”
Time was of the essence for the girl to escape the inferno with her life, but it soon became clear that she wasn’t concerned with her life alone.
In a remarkable act of bravery, before climbing down to safety herself, the girl handed down her dog — insisting that the little pup be saved first.
Amazingly, thanks to Cruz and the other Good Samaritan, the girl had been saved. And thanks to her, the little dog had been saved as well.
“The doctors who treated her said she was in good health,” Cruz said. “The dog was scared, but was also in good condition. Everyone was happy that they made it out alive.”
It’s unclear how the fire began, but what is known is that the events that day could have ended in tragedy if not for the heroic efforts of all involved.
Prior to the fire, Cruz had only met the girl upstairs in passing — but even still, he already knew what mattered to her most.
“She always has her little dog with her,” Cruz said.