Fireman takes Spider-Man approach to rescue boy from balcony

[Altered Statesman]

A THAI fireman turned superhero when he dressed up as comic-book character Spider-Man to coax a frightened eight-year-old from a balcony, police say.

This story is so cool, on so many levels!

"My fireman rushed back to the fire station and took out his Spider-Man costume ...

That line alone (explained in the article), made me LOL and I still have a smile on my face.

[The Goof]

That is a great story!

[WildaBeast]

When I read the headline, I pictured a kid being rescued from the balcony of a burning building by a firefighter swinging from a web or something.

Then I read the quote in the OP about the fireman going back to the station to get his costume, but I was still picturing a burning building, and thought "that seems like a huge waste of valuable time."

Now that I read the whole story, yes, it is cool... but not as cool as it would have been if he'd swung from a web as I had origionally imagined.

[Dactyl]

Great story and good on the fireman. This is a story I'll repeat at work tomorrow just before I remind people they need to start their end of month figures.

Originally Posted by Altered Statesman

That line alone (explained in the article), made me LOL and I still have a smile on my face.

This may be the boring adult in me, but I'm still at a slight loss as to why he had a Spiderman costume in his locker. Shouldn't school fire drills be taken seriously?

[ElectricBarbarella]

He's got an Ultraman Costume!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I just geeked out.

School fire drills are never taken seriously--at least not by the kids who have to, once again, be ushered out of the classroom for "no reason" (hey, just parroting what I used to say).. but if it gets the kids to listen, go for it. It's no different than McGruff the crime dog.

[Four Kitties]

Originally Posted by Dactyl

This may be the boring adult in me, but I'm still at a slight loss as to why he had a Spiderman costume in his locker. Shouldn't school fire drills be taken seriously?

I think the whole point of drills is to make the evacuation procedures so familiar and non-threatening that the children don't panic if they have to evacuate for real.

At the Kitten's elementary school, the Fire Department is on hand for scheduled drills for exactly that reason: so the kids will take it seriously, in case it's real, and so they are used to having the firefighters around, so they won't panic. I understand this: if the Fire Department were never there for drills, the one time they were there the kids would all think, "Ohmigod it's real!" and some might freak out.

They don't bother to show for drills at the high school, for two reasons: first, because the kids are older; and second, because the high school is directly across the street from the main fire station. When the alarm goes off at the high school, the firefighters just walk across the street.

Anyway, I suspect the Spiderman costume is similarly reassuring to the littlest ones.

Four Kitties