Bedsheet Acts As Life Saver As Boy Escapes Chennai Apartment Fire

Chennai: A 10-year old boy escaped with fractures after a bedsheet held by 50 people as a spring board enabled his father to throw him down from a building during a fire incident. The boy, Christo, was thrown from the second floor to escape the engulfing smoke that killed four persons. 

However, the cloth apparently could not take his weight and gave away resulting in two broken legs for the boy. 

The incident happened during a fire that broke out at Vadapalani apartment complex in Tamil Nadu's Chennai that led to the death of four of its residents. The fire broke out around 5.30 am on Monday morning.

The boy's father John Christopher said when he opened the door to see what the commotion was about, the smoke entered the house. However, help was waiting outside. 

"There were about 50 persons holding a bedsheet and they asked me to throw my son down to enable him escape from smoke" he told reporters. 

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Christo did fall on the bedsheet, but it tore and resulted in his suffering fractured legs following the fall, Mr Christopher added.

"Fortunately he fell on his legs and not on his head. Otherwise he may not have escaped",  Mr Christopher said. 

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The other occupants managed their way out, he added. 

Earlier, four persons including two children were killed after a fire caused by a suspected short circuit resulted in smoke suffocating them to death.