Last week, a man in West Philadelphia scaled a 19-story building, Spiderman style. And the reasons are shocking.
The Hero: Why He Went All Spiderman in West Philadelphia
The man, named Jermaine (35 years old) actually climbed up all the way to the 15th floor to save his mother from a fire. She was bedridden and couldn’t escape on her own, but with an injured hip, he came to her rescue.
How the incident went down
As reported by CNN, Jermaine received a call from his sister on Thursday night saying that their mother’s apartment building had caught fire and that she hadn’t been able to make it out.
He immediately rushed to the place where he found the front door blocked by the police. They told him that the elevators were not working and when he suggested using the stairs, they simply wouldn’t let him in. Realizing they weren’t going to be persuaded, he began to think of other avenues.
He’d hurt his hip on some stairs previously, but he was not to be daunted. He deftly began to climb the fenced-in balconies of the building.
Then he kept grabbing gates and the ledges on top of them to the next gate to keep maneuvering himself up. Worrying about his mother’s safety and fueled by adrenaline, Jermaine kept going until he reached his mother.
Then he told her that she would be okay since the fire had been contained.
A Son’s Love
“I took it upon myself because that’s my mother. There are no limits. That’s my mother,” Jermaine told the press. His mother was reportedly shocked, but she knew that her son would go above and beyond to take care of her.
The Aftermath of The Climbing
Jermaine thought that he would be arrested upon climbing down, but the police officer just told him to leave the site. “He cut me a break,” Jermaine said, talking about the officer.