Man Saves 10 People From Burning Apartment Building

A St. Louis man heroically rescued as many as 10 of his neighbors after a fire broke out in their three-story apartment building on Monday morning.

Arnez Merriweather, 30, told KSDK how his "instincts" kicked in after the blaze broke out on the second floor of Hillvale Apartments on Selber Court.

"I just came out the building we started yelling [to alert residents] and next thing you know, second-floor window opened," he told the news outlet.

With thick smoke engulfing the corridors inside the building, Merriweather encouraged a mother stranded on the second floor to drop her three-year-old daughter into his arms.

"I caught her baby," he said. "Then she jumped out and I caught her. And her mom jumped out and I caught her, and we both fell."

Yet Merriweather's heroism had only just begun.

Soon after he and several others grabbed some nearby maintenance ladders and began helping several other trapped residents escape the blaze.

He started by climbing to the third floor, where he grabbed one baby and brought them back down safely before climbing back up to rescue another young infant.

Merriweather said he then returned to the second floor where an older woman was stuck and in an increasingly panicked state.

"Her leg was caught, and she was kind of frantic, so I calmed her down," he told KSDK. "And when I got on the ladder we climbed down, together."

He then came back to help the woman's brother escape the blaze before grabbing another ladder and heading off to rescue someone else who was stuck on the third floor of the building.

Merriweather told the news outlet that by this time he could "barely breathe" as there was "a lot of smoke coming out" of the building.

Despite this, he was able to complete his final rescue mission. "I go off instincts, I calm down and just focus," he said.

St. Louis Fire Department also arrived on the scene and was eventually able to bring the blaze under control. In a statement posted to Twitter, they confirmed that all of the building's occupants were accounted for outside the building.

They said that Emergency Medical Service personnel treated five people at the scene including one infant. Three were subsequently transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Merriweather told Fox2 that a combination of meditation and jogging helped him stay calm. "I'm just glad everybody is okay," he said. "The clothes and material stuff you can replace."

The American Red Cross is assisting those families displaced as a result of the fire while the cause of the blaze is being investigated.

Speaking to the news outlet, Fire Captain Garon Mosby praised Merriweather for his heroic efforts in coordinating the rescue effort.

"It's just really heartening to see in a time where folks are really concerned about clicks, likes, and follows, that instead of capturing footage, this young man actually went into action to help his neighbors," he said.

Newsweek has contacted the St. Louis Fire Department for comment.

The story stands in stark contrast to one witnessed in New York where a pair of thieves were caught on camera burglarizing an apartment following a fire that killed a young child and a pet dog.

Earlier this month, firefighters in England earned praise after successfully resuscitating a pet cat that had become trapped in a house fire.