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Kiddush Hashem: London Hatzolah Member Helps Rescue Muslim Child from Burning House

This is London

An unidentified woman and Josh Berkovits, a Hatzolah member, helped rescue this Muslim child from a deadly inferno.

A woman risked her life to enter a blazing building and rescue a two-year-old boy.

CCTV footage shows the unidentified woman rushing into a blazing house in Tottenham to save Arafat Hassan, who was stranded inside.

The toddler was fighting for his life today in intensive care after suffering severe burns when the blaze swept through his family’s terrace home in Antill Road yesterday afternoon.

The courageous woman was helped in the rescue by a paramedic and a chef from a nearby restaurant, who also ran into the blazing building.

Neighbours said she was driving past the house when she heard Arafat’s pregnant mother screaming for help. The boy’s father, Sadir Hassan, was apparently struggling to get inside, having been beaten back by the flames while helping other people to get out of the house.

According to eyewitnesses, the woman, wearing blue jeans and a green vest top, leapt from her car and ran inside with little thought for her own safety.

She appeared moments later carrying the child and took him to a restaurant across the street. Josh Berkovits, a paramedic, also helped to get Arafat to safety and gave emergency medical treatment.

Mr Berkovits, 35, who works with Hatzola, a local ambulance service run by the Jewish community, cut off the boy’s clothes, applied burns gel to his wounds and wrapped him in cling film to stop infection.

“The boy had burns to about 80 per cent of his body,” said Mr Berkovits. “When we got him to the restaurant he stopped screaming. He had breathed in a lot of smoke so was very quiet.”

The chef, Javier Fajardo-Toledo, 40, from Ecuador, said: “When the lady got the baby into the restaurant I tried to help but he was burnt very badly. The lady was really brave, she didn’t think twice.”

Four fire engines and 20 firefighters were called to the blaze, which destroyed the two-storey house. Today, the Hassan family, believed to be from Somalia, said the mystery woman was “amazing” but were too shocked to comment further.

Neighbour Matthew Miller said: “The little boy was so badly burned, all over his face and arms, but he was totally quiet.

“What all three people did was amazingly brave, they are heroes. Most people just wouldn’t.

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22 Comments

  • Note

    You should blur the picture there is a part that is inappropriate.

    (Somebody once asked the Rebbe if it is okay to take pictures of babies that are undressed, and the Rebbe said that you should cover the ‘ervah’.

    Don’t quote me on the details).

  • to Bracha l-vatala

    Remember a chasideshe maise where a Rov helped a goishe boy and then boy grew up he saved the entire Jewish community of the town from poisoning. We have to believe in Maises haTzadikim and that this is right way to do. May be this boy will have some ties with some of the terrorists and will inform us about what needs to be informed at the right time.

  • AKA somebody

    This is for BRACHA L-VATALA

    Who are you to decide who lives and who dies???

  • Disappointed

    #2,That’s a very small-minded response, don’t you think? What gives you the idea that every Muslim person is or will be a terrorist? Yes, some are! And some Jews are child predators! So, by your logic, a Jewish child rescued from a fire will become a child predator! If you do some investigating, you will discover that your logic is illogical and actually misinformed. Have you read or heard of Muslims that would never ever condone anything even close to terrorism? Have you ever read or heard of Jews who would never ever condone child molesting? I think I understand your sarcasm and disdain; however, can you open up enough to consider the thoughts I have suggested?

  • Suggestion

    How is the baby doing? What do his parents say about the people who helped their son? Can they be interviewed with # 4’s words in mind? Maybe such an interview would shed some light on the issue of terrorism and people of the Muslim faith.

  • A Non-Crown Heightser

    To #2
    Excuse me?? Are you racist?? Are all Jews racist against Muslims? Some of them are good and kind people!! (Sandra in Mumbai….)

    Think before you write.

    I’m glad I’m not a Crown Heightser if this is how they act.

  • Don-t write and say two opposite things

    To # 13 Don’t talk about being a racist then putting all Crown Heightsers in one lump, Since you’ve just did the very act that you refuted. Think twice

  • non-cher too

    to #13 i agree totally!!
    to #14 you must be a crown heightser

  • name like Arafat why would you help him

    if his name is Arafat then he is going to grow up as a terrorist
    and his parents must be jew haters (would you name your kid Hitler)?? from England Esau Hate Jacob remember that

  • To #5

    unless people started growing “ervahs” on their behinds, its fine. Stop being too frum for yourself.
    P.S. just IN CASE your mind is also warped, those are legs!

  • nos

    #16
    look in halachah it says nothing about not saving a goy a poerson is dying you save him simple

  • to #16

    what the hell is wrong with you?! you are so rascist. according to lubavitch jews (i am not lubavitch) – everyone besides for jews are horrible people – muslims, christians, catholics, buddists, etc. Guess what? I have MANY friends of those religious denominations who are amazing. I have a dear friend who is catholic and she is basically like a tzaddik – not perfect but so holy and does only good. watch your mouth – you should be condemmed for your comment and thought!!!!!

  • to number 20

    your right there are a few witch are good BUT most of them are Jew haters and if a parent names there kid after a guy that killed 1000s of jews then she should not be help by a jew

  • Miss Information

    Some errors:

    1) Arafat is a place name in the Koran. The tzoirer ymach shmo’s name was actually Husseini by birth and he changed it to Arafat for some reason. Somalia has far too many of its own problems for anyone from there to be concerned with the Middle East. It is not a given that the boy was named for the tzoirer – could be but doesn’t have to be.

    2) Sandra Samuel is a notzriah, not a Muslim. The cook at the Chabad House was a Muslim and no one is quite clear as to what he did during the siege.