Child caught after falling three stories

At 6:30 last night, Robert Lemire was chatting on his cell phone, talking about coaching his daughter's softball team this spring.
But when he looked across the street, Lemire quickly realized someone else's daughter was going to need his help first.
A child was dangling out of a third-story window at 700 Haverhill St., and Lemire, without thinking about his own safety, bolted across the busy street to help the toddler. Then, with help from Alex Day, another Good Samaritan, the two men caught 11/2-year-old Caliah Clark as she fell about 40 feet into their waiting arms.
"I've only seen something like that on TV," said Lemire, a Methuen father of two girls, ages 13 and 16.
Police last night credited the hustle of the two men with saving the girl as she hung from the apartment window.
"The quick response, the calls for help. These guys are heroes, no question about it," said police Chief John Romero.
The girl was taken to Lawrence General Hospital for evaluation, but police don't believe she suffered any serious injuries. As required by law, the Department of Social Services was immediately notified about the accident and is expected to investigate.
"She's lucky. Everybody is lucky," said Lemire, 45, a remodeling contractor.
Lemire said he had stopped on Haverhill Street and was going to order supper from a nearby pizza joint. As he was chatting outside on his cell phone, the first thing he noticed, as he looked across the street, were toys being thrown out of the apartment at 700 Haverhill St., a large Victorian-style home.
Then, he saw the third-floor window was wide open and a little girl was hanging outside. Two other kids were holding onto her by her arms as she dangled outside the window.
Lemire said he bolted across busy Haverhill Street, nearly getting hit by a car. He yelled for help.
Day, 23, who was attending a Bible study meeting inside 700 Haverhill St., heard someone yelling outside and fearing a fire had ignited, he jumped up to see what was going on.
He soon met Lemire, who pointed to the side of the house "where there was a child hanging out the window," Day told police.
Lemire "was just going frantic trying to get her," Day said last night.
Both men ran around the house and stood underneath Caliah, who suddenly fell into their arms. Day caught the top of her body, while Lemire grabbed the lower half.
"As soon as I told him what was happening, we both looked up and there she came," Lemire said.
When Lemire dialed 911 for help, he said his "fingers were numb."
Day then went upstairs and spoke to the child's father, Randall Clark, 27, and expressed "his disappointment as to what had just occurred," according to a police report. Clark told police he was caring for a newborn child in the apartment's bathroom when he heard a commotion outside. When he went to see what the kids were doing, he found his two oldest children near the "wide open window," the police report said.
"He then reported not seeing the 11/2 year old anywhere in the room and felt like something had gone wrong. He ran down to the second floor where he was met by Alex Day with his child in his hand," the report said.
The window is close to the floor and can be easily opened. There was no screen in the window, Patrolman Rhadames Gonzalez noted in his report.
The city's Inspectional Services division was also notified about the window. Lemire said he was just happy the evening had a happy ending.
"Thank God," he said.
Day agreed, describing the event as "absolutely incredible."
"She was so small, she would have really been hurt," he said. "It was pretty amazing when I look back on the whole thing."

The shot that saved lives

One year ago Mykal Riley sank a three that kept fans out of the path of a tornado. But Riley would never have been there if not for an intricate web of chance meetings, false starts and a terrible crime.

THE CLOCK STARTS WHEN THE SHOOTER CATCHES the ball, on the left wing, 24 feet from the basket. Two seconds left. He has run off a screen from the baseline, so his momentum carries him toward midcourt. He pushes hard off his right foot and pivots back to the left. One-point-four seconds. When he rises off the floor, the force of this hard cut is still carrying him left. One second. He believes Jesus will guide this shot.

The shooter flicks his right wrist at the peak of his jump, and if you photographed him now, you could put it in a textbook. Eight tenths of a second. The ball is still airborne when time expires and the horn sounds. The shot is almost perfect. But the shooter was drifting left, as you recall, and the ball lands just left of the target. It hits the back of the rim, the boxy part with the springs, and the springs rattle. The ball caroms from back rim to front, seeming to gain speed as it goes, and it suddenly leaps out of the cylinder.

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God. The shooter believes this because his King James Bible says so, and because of what he has seen, and soon he will believe it more deeply than ever. The ball sails toward the backboard, hits the center of the white square, and falls through the net.

This shot does nothing to change the game's outcome. And yet, for pure utility, it may be as great as any play in the history of sports. Eight minutes later, on the evening of March 14, 2008, during this Southeastern Conference tournament game between Alabama and Mississippi State, a tornado will roar through downtown Atlanta, and high winds will breach the Georgia Dome, and metal will strike the hardwood, and players will flee for cover, and it will seem to be snowing indoors. By morning Mykal Riley's three-pointer will be known as The Shot That Saved Lives.

Outside, the tornado passes just north of the Dome and screams through Centennial Olympic Park with winds of 120 mph. Glass rains down from hundreds of broken windows. Siding is ripped from the Dome's exterior. Potted plants go flying. Metal is driven into the side of a covered walkway. Cars flip over. Two 65-foot light towers topple in the park.

To the east, near a neighborhood called Cabbagetown, a homeless man is killed by a collapsing brick wall. But no serious injuries are reported downtown because the thunderstorm that came before the tornado has driven almost everyone off the streets, and 14,825 are safe inside the Dome, watching the overtime forced by Mykal Riley.

There is no way to prove that his shot saved lives. We can know only what did happen, and what didn't. Nevertheless, all the people interviewed for this story about their experience in the Dome that night believe that Mykal's shot prevented injuries and even deaths.

http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1153064/index.htm

Miracle on the Hudson

No one ever landed a plane that large on a body of water let alone on a fast river.

"The left engine just blew. Fire, flames were coming out of it and I was looking at it because I was sitting right there. And it just started smelling like gasoline," a passenger told WNBC. "...Everyone started, to be honest, to say prayers."

All of the passengers survived, according to initial reports thanks to the expertise, bravery and cool of the pilot, Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, a hero whose calm saved 155 people, including a little baby, from an icy and fiery death in what could only be called a miracle.

"It looks like a miraculous rescue underway," Bill White of the nearby Intrepid Museum told reporters. "It was an extraordinary rescue effort."

Ferry passengers who happened to be on the Hudson at the time of the crash jumped into action.

“We just started taking people from the wing and the inflatable rafts,” said Janis Krums who was riding on one of the first boats to arrive and rescue the passengers. “And we just started giving them clothes and keeping them warm… in less than six or seven minutes we just had five or six boats helping.”

Stunned passengers struggled to describe the harrowing experience.


“I don't even know how to put it into words right now," Alberto Panero told CNN. "I actually grabbed one of the seats; that was the first thing that came to my mind. Some people grabbed the inflatable one. Immediately there were folks coming to us and throwing life jackets to us and helping us get to safety."

"There were a couple of people who took charge and started yelling for everyone to calm down," Panero said. "Once everyone realized we were going to be OK, they settled down."

Along the bank of the Hudson, eyewitnesses could not believe their eyes: a plane was flying impossibly low yet steady as can be. It was as if the pilot was approaching a runway, not the icy winter waters of Manhattan’s Hudson River.

“I saw a plane coming down the Hudson in very controlled fashion but much much lower than it should be,” Christian Martin told MSNBC. “It was really just a remarkable job … It could not appear more controlled or smooth as the pilot touched down in the water.”

Are there Miracles?

I was talking with my friend Mark about an explosion at CTA Acoustics. Two workers saw the fireball coming at them. Then about 10 feet away it stopped. Mark said the explosion which killed 6 people ran out of fuel. The two workers thought it was the Hand of God.

Mark and I investigated a quadruple fatality at Buffalo rock in the late 1980's It occurred when an ammo loading machine misfired and caused a small bang. The bang shook the dust off the rafters and then it the larger second explosion killed four of the eight workers. I interview two workers who didn't make it in. One was caring for a sick kid and had no backup and the other couldn't get his car started. Both had great attendance. Why did they not make it in?

In 1995, a worker took off his safety harness in Algoquin IL on the water tower. He fell 110 feet into small pile of sand. No injuries. 100 people could do that and be dead or crippled.

This blog is just my attempt to record some of these events.