Miracle Catch (Edmonton Journal)
[quote] Quick-acting Edmonton Eskimos caught and saved a woman Sunday when she jumped from an apartment building fire that forced another man to plunge to his death and sent six people to hospital...
...a group of Edmonton Eskimo football players, who live in the building, saw her threatening to jump and ran to catch her. The woman, Teri Macleod, 24, cut a knee but was otherwise unhurt.
"It was amazing," she said, shortly after she was saved. "They had their hands out ready for me. I felt I was going to be safe, and I am.
"They'd better catch me," she added, laughing, "Or it's going to be a bad season. They're heroes."
Eskimo player Sheldon Benoit said he and his teammates left the building when the fire started.
"We came down the back and saw...Macleod and her friend at the window, as if they were going to jump.
"I was saying, 'Just hang there, just hang,' but she couldn't," Benoit said. "She wasn't going to. I guess it was too hot. So when she decided to jump we figured OK, maybe we could brace her fall. And that's all we did."
Several of the Eskimos climbed onto a concrete overhang above the door so they would be closer to her window. They held their hands together, and then she jumped.
Abdullah said he ran down the stairs with his shirt over his face to protect against the smoke. When he and his teammates came around the front of the building they saw the woman about to jump.
"We saw one guy die - we couldn't stand by and let her die," Abdullah said.
The Eskimos also helped convince other panicked residents not to jump, to stay where they were until help arrived. Firefighters climbed ladders to pluck five other trapped residents from their windows and take them to safety.
Way to go, Esks!