A man was rescued from the fifth floor of his burning Washington Heights apartment building Monday by a couple of helpful people with a ladder.
The rescue, captured on video, shows several building workers stretching a ladder across a fire escape into a window one floor down from where a man was dangling from a burning apartment's window on 172nd Street.
Witnesses said the man appeared desperate enough to jump.
"Everybody was saying to him, 'don't jump, don't jump, wait, wait,'" said witness Freddy Morales.
Once the men stretched the ladder across the gap, one of the rescuers walked across the ladder and pulled the man down to safety, video shows.
One of the rescuers, Rosendo Lopez, said he heard the man's cries for help and sprung into action. Lopez, the apartment's superintendent, had a ladder available.
"They saved his life," said Morales.
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The three men said they don't feel like heroes.
After the rescue, the man was taken to the hospital in serious but stable condition.
