How homeless man rescued 2 children from burning apartment

Anival Angulo, a 36-year-old homeless man of Las Vegas, noticed that there was smoke coming out of a building and quickly went there to help.

In December 2017, Angulo became the hero of two young children as he was walking by the apartment in the exact moment when a strong yet accidental fire started.

As the Las Vegas Fire & Rescue Facebook page revealed, Angulo wanted to check if everything was okay and approached the one-story wood frame apartment building. Once there, he overheard the children crying and knew he had to do something.

He jumped the locked gate and saw a 3-year-old girl standing in front of a security door. Since she couldn’t open it, Angulo pulled and bent it upward. As soon as he got the door opened, the girl ran and wrapped her arms around his waist.

It didn’t end there, though, as he saw the leg of the other child who was in the building. Angulo rescued the 10-month-old baby, as well, and they were taken to the University Medical Center to be treated for minor smoke inhalation.

If Angulo wouldn’t have reacted that quick, or if he would have chosen not to do anything, both children would have suffered severe smoke inhalation and burns as the firefighters got to the building a couple of minutes after Angulo rescued them.

Investigators identified that the fire started on the stove in a pan with cooking grease. The older child told firefighters that the pan got on fire and it got bigger fast. Both children were being supervised by their grandfather, who was in a back bedroom.

Even though the fire gutted the kitchen and living room of the apartment and the smoke caused damage to the rest of it and to the apartment next door, firefighters managed to control it in less than 10 minutes.

The fire was ruled accidental and the damage was estimated at $50,000. The American Red Cross assisted three adults and a child after the incident.