Man saves four children from apartment fire in Lipník nad Bečvou, Czech Republic

Jan Sivák (27) saved his relatives from a fire on Hvězdní Street in Lipník nad Bečvou, Czech Republic during the first Sunday of August. The four children were standing at a window and desperately calling for help after their apartment caught fire. 

The children were fortunate to be heard by their relative, who lives one street over and did not hesitate to rescue them. When he heard the children crying desperately and calling for help at 2:30 AM, he ran out into the darkened street. 

Just one street over, the four children and their mother were fighting for their lives. Sivák wasted no time borrowing a ladder from a neighbor so he could bring the children down one by one from the burning hell that their home had become. 

“Four children aged 2, 8, 13 and 15 were standing at a window calling for help, immediate action was necessary. They were unable to get out. I called the fire department immediately. There was no time to wait for them, though, so we leaned a neighbor’s ladder against the building and I climbed up it to the second floor. I carried the children one by one out of the burning apartment to safety. It all took about five minutes,” Sivák described to news server Romea.cz what he managed to do before firefighters arrived.  

“Afterward I heard the emergency services drive up and they removed the children’s mother, my aunt, from the burning apartment,” Sivák said. She was taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation and was released the following day. 

“The next day I found out that the family had lit a candle in the kitchen and their cat had knocked it over. Fortunately they all managed to move into the living room in time, away from the spreading fire, and called for help,” their rescuer described.