THIS is the dramatic moment a hero caretaker rescues four babies from a blazing sixth-floor flat in Paris.
Astonishing footage captures Fousseynou Cissé navigating through dense smoke and precarious heights as he precariously stands on the outer ledge of a burning apartment building, desperately signaling to those stuck inside.
Through the blackened window, the 39-year-old can be seen coaxing desperate parents to hand over their children, one by one.
First, he carefully takes hold of a five-month-old baby, then passes the infant across to a man perched in a neighbouring building.
Moments later, he repeats the heroic act with a one-year-old child.
But the caretaker, who works at a local school, didn’t stop there.
He went on to rescue two more children and two adults from the inferno engulfing the building in northern Paris on Friday.
“I didn’t ask myself the question. Their lives were in danger. I didn’t think twice,” he told Le Parisien.
He revealed he had been lying on his sofa when he smelled smoke and spotted a mother holding her baby out of a window.
He told his wife to evacuate with their two-year-old, then ran straight into the chaos to help his neighbours.
“Given the amount of smoke, they and their children could have suffocated,” Cissé said.
“Their last hope was to throw themselves out the window otherwise…”
He credited his success to his long arm span – more than four feet – and his 6ft2 height, which allowed him to bridge the gap between the apartments.
He kept his legs astride the two buildings to stay anchored while passing the children to safety.
Cissé told BFMTV: “When I saw my neighbors stuck and shocked, I didn’t hesitate to jump out the window and find a place to put my feet.
“I stood firm, spreading my feet and letting the children through.”
The fire had broken out on the second floor, but the thick, acrid smoke quickly rose to the top floor.
Naomi, aged 31, found herself trapped with her two sons, aged nine and 11, as well as a neighbor’s children — a five-month-old and a one-and-a-half-year-old — when the stairwell became impassable.
“We couldn’t see anything anymore,” she said. “We were caught in the smoke… I yelled at them to come back up.”
Cissé climbed out through a neighbour’s skylight, which he said was “4–5 metres” from the flat where the mothers and children were sheltering.
“It was mainly the babies who pushed me to act (…) It’s a question of survival,” he told BFMTV.
“When you’re thinking, you don’t assess the risks. It was only after, when I watched the footage again, that I realized I could’ve fallen to my death from the sixth floor.”
Ten people were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation, local media reported.
Cissé, dubbed “the hero of the 18th arrondissement,” will now be officially decorated for his act of bravery, the French Interior Ministry confirmed.
The selfless rescue has sparked an outpouring of praise.
Senator Rémi Féraud posted on X: “Impressive courage that saved lives. Fousseynou Cissé is a hero who deserves our admiration and the recognition of Paris.”
French MEP Matthieu Valet added: “Facing death, armed only with his bravery, he saved Naomie, her two children, a neighbour’s five-month-old baby, and her other one-and-a-half-year-old child. Without a weapon. Without a helmet. Just his courage.”
