Woman gives birth to miracle son moments after escaping fire
A Russian executive gave birth to a “miracle” son today an hour and a half after she was seen in terror at a third floor window as her office was engulfed in flames.
Her life in acute danger, Ekaterina Averkova-Sterlyadeva, 37, refused to jump from the inferno office block onto a blanket held by rescuers below.
Moments earlier she had seen a female colleague leap to escape the blaze and suffer serious injury as she hit a ledge above a doorway below before landing blood-soaked on the snowy ground.
Another woman was safely caught by men holding a blanket.
But Ekaterina refused to jump despite rescuers pleading with her not to risk dying in the inferno.
A rescuer said she was “in a terrible state of stress” as smoke poured from her window.
The 39-week pregnant PR chief was finally plucked to safety when volunteers raised an extendable ladder before professional firefighters arrived at the scene in industrial city Perm.
One volunteer climbed up the steps and guided her down.
Ekaterina, managing partner at the PR agency PRIMAVERA, was rushed to hospital.
She immediately went into labour after cheating death and gave birth to a healthy boy, her third child, weighing in at 6lb 2oz an hour and a half after she climbed down the ladder to safety.
A dashcam video from a passing car picked up the moment a colleague of Ekaterina’s jumped from the burning building as smoke gushed from windows.
The unnamed woman is reported to be in a “grave condition”, after sustaining head, spine and rib injuries. A second woman was successfully caught, a rescuer said.
Then rescuers then held a blanket for Ekaterina but shouted down that she would not jump.
The blaze started in the offices of her PR agency.
The fire alarm sounded but some workers were stranded by thick smoke flames and could not reach the stairway.
One witness said the expectant mother had made a “miracle escape” from the inferno. If rescuers hadn’t found the ladder “she would not have made it”.
-Australscope
