The video is harrowing.
Smoke was billowing outside a Paris apartment window. Fire was raging inside. Two adults and four children were trapped.
Fousseynou Cissé never hesitated once he saw them —even though the only escape route was a narrow ledge 65 feet in the air. (Watch the video below…)
The 39-year-old who works as a receptionist at a secondary school, stepped out onto the ledge from an adjacent apartment, moving within an arm’s length of the blazing apartment window.
From there, a mother passed a tiny baby in a diaper to Mr. Cisse on the ledge, who then handed the baby to a friend inside the neighboring apartment, safely away from the fire.
A similar scene repeated as Cisse helped five more people move across the ledge before he himself climbed to safety.
A spectator recorded the whole thing and posted it online. And it didn’t take long for Cisse’s heroism to go viral on French TV and social media…
French President Emmanuel Macron invited Mr. Cissé to be a guest of honor at France’s Bastille Day parade last week, and Paris Police Chief Laurent Nuñez made plans to award the hero with a ceremonial medal for his courage and devotion.
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The entire city declared him a hero – and yet Cisse still found room for humility.
“I went on instinct,” he said in an article by the Washington Post. “It’s the heart telling you, ‘No, you have to go.’”
Once the smoke subsided and the facts emerged, Cisse’s brave deed became even more clear. According to news reports, Cisse is an immigrant who has not yet earned French citizenship, but owns a residency permit that allows him to work. The baby he rescued was reportedly just a month old. Another child was only one.
In all, six lives were saved (four children and two adults) thanks to the courage that sent Cisse out onto the ledge 65-feet above ground, with fire raging just next door.
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“I was facing a void from the sixth floor where I could fall,” Cisse told the Washington Post. “It wasn’t easy, so afterward, given the seriousness [of the situation], I felt happy. Saving a life, even if it’s just one person, but especially several people at the same time, is something magnificent.”
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