Army Vet Working as Mailman Sprints into Flames Without Hesitation To Save Girl's Life
What images flick across your mind when you hear the word “hero”? Perhaps a soldier or a first responder, a police officer or a surgeon, a hardworking father or a patiently tireless mother.
But as incredible as those people may be, none of them came to the rescue when a Spencerport, New York, apartment building went up in flames on March 16. Instead, the hero in this case turned out to be a humble letter carrier — a mailman.
Chris Turner was on his way home from his customary route. It was a Friday, the end of a work week and the beginning of a much deserved weekend.
Yet Turner glanced out his window, he saw gouts of smoke billowing from a two-story building. He immediately sprang into action.
“I couldn’t just drive by,” he told WHAM. “I just couldn’t do it.”
And what a good thing that turned out to be. People were trapped on that second story, cut off from any escape by roaring sheets of flame.
“When I pulled up and saw the building on fire, I heard screams for help,” Turner said. “They obviously needed help. They couldn’t get out the building.”
Turner helped coaxed a man and his daughter away from the apartment’s entrance. At his urging, the young woman jumped out the window and into a snow bank.
“She got right out, and I caught her, and thank God we had a snow bank beneath us and it kind of broke the fall a bit,” he said. Moments later, firefighters arrived and rescued her father.
Turner didn’t come by his bravery accidentally. He’s an Army veteran who’s used to going the extra mile.
“In the Army, you see people shot, people dying, and then you come home and see this happening and you just want to help,” he explained to WBIR. And he isn’t the only letter carrier who has stepped up to help out the less fortunate.
According to the National Association of Letter Carriers, the Rochester area where Turner works has seen more than two-dozen postal employees step up to help lost toddlers, save stabbing victims, and aid those in the middle of medical emergencies.
So save a smile for the individual who hands you your mail: You might be looking at a hero.
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