Firefighters Respond To Extinguish Blaze, Do Something Amazing

Firefighters have always been some of the greatest heroes of the society, only visible when needed and vanishing when the task is completed. The list of their heroics may be a long one, but recently, two firefighters added a completely new skill to their resume.

Over 70 firemen were called in an emergency to douse a blaze in north London that started in a restaurant and engulfed several flats above. But apart from bringing the inferno under control, Ross McClaren and Richard Hall, who were part of the firefighting team, went above and beyond their call of duty to actually deliver a baby.

Interestingly, the pregnant lady, Ewelina Zimnicki, wasn’t one of the victims caught in the fire, but she along with her husband were frantically trying to reach the hospital before Ewelina’s contractions reached critical level.

Jaroslaw Zimnicki, the husband, witnessed the valiant efforts of the firefighters, but had his own emergency that needed immediate tending. Hence he requested the first emergency crew members that he could catch hold of. Instead of asking the father-to-be to wait, Ross sensed the urgency, “I could see that the lady in the back seat was in the middle of giving birth and when I looked I could see the baby’s head,” reported The Independent.

The 33-year-old, who is based at Euston fire station and part of London Fire Brigade, said he had an idea of how to help because his wife was an “avid viewer” of Channel 4 series One Born Every Minute and he had managed to pick up some knowledge of midwife skills, reports Mirror.

Going by instinct, the firefighter offered basic but essential first–aid and urged the mother to push, “We began to give the mum oxygen and to try and reassure her. While Richie carried on doing that I ran round to where the baby was and kept telling the lady to push.”

After the baby was born, the firefighter continued ensuring the baby was breathing, “Once he was born we rubbed him down to get his circulation going and when he started crying I knew it was going to be alright.”

The baby is a healthy 9 lb. 2 oz. boy and was taken to North Middlesex hospital by an ambulance that reached the spot a little later. Perhaps the baby, named Antoni Zimnicka, was meant to be delivered by the firefighters, because, as per the couple’s confession, they did not react swiftly to the labor pains because their first child had taken a long time.

The firefighters behaved very professionally, cordoned off the area with barriers, even while the other members were fighting the flames. Fortunately, the fire was brought under control and preliminary reports indicate everyone was evacuated safely. Wonder if the baby realized it was born despite such chaos owing to the heroic nature of two firefighters?

[Image credit | Telegraph]