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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Will Stewart & Katie L Wilson

Terrifying footage shows rescue of teen from 90ft high burning flat

A heart-stopping video shows how a female student was miraculously rescued from a burning flat by climbing out of a window 90ft above the ground.

Irina Yerpuleva, 18, was coaxed down from a ninth-floor window to the flat below with no safety ropes in the Moscow inferno on January 29.

Toxic black smoke was pouring from the burning apartment.

Her student boyfriend Timur Zakirov, 20, and another friend Adel Akhmetzyanov, 21, had moments earlier climbed down and been helped into the window by the flat owner.

“I hesitated until Timur began to shout at me, and this brought me to my senses,” said Irina, who said he saved her life.

“I climbed down. They instructed me and told me what to do.”

They grabbed her legs and pulled her into the window on the eighth floor.

The moment when Timur and Adel rescue Irina (Ilya Latyshko/east2west news)
The flat almost fully burned down (Social media/east2west news)

“At that time, I was in a rather strange state. I didn’t understand that I was on the height of the ninth floor, and any wrong move could be a fatal mistake for me, and I could fall.

“For me, fear came later.”

Another video moments earlier showed how Timur and Adel had climbed down from the burning north floor flat in desperation, clinging onto the window ledge.

Fire intensified when Irina left the window (Social media/east2west news)

“They climbed out the window, hung on to the window's ledge and kicked at the window of the apartment below on the eighth floor,” she said.

“Thank God, the owner was home. If not for him, I can’t imagine what would have happened."

Adel said: "Timur was hanging by one arm, the other clutching onto the window frame with several fingers.

“I held on tightly to the window sill with my right hand, and with my left, I pulled his other hand to the window frame so that he could pull himself up.

“I thought we would have to jump - it seemed that it was better than staying there and getting burned.”

Luckily, Irina did not require hospital treatment after the fire (Irina Yerpuleva/east2west news)

Media student Irina suffered cuts, abrasions and carbon monoxide poisoning but did not need hospital treatment after the fire drama at Chertanovo district, Moscow.

Timur suffered burns and remains in hospital.

Another friend Igor Garankin suffered 34% burns after escaping via the door before the flames worsened.

The fire is believed to have been caused by an electrical short circuit.

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