An elderly couple escaped a fire that broke out in their apartment in the Athens suburb of Kallithea, with the woman jumping from the balcony to escape the flames, authorities said.
The fire broke out on the first floor of a residential building at the intersection of Aristidou and Agion Panton streets while the couple was sleeping. A neighbor alerted them after noticing the blaze.
The 75-year-old woman became trapped on the balcony as smoke and flames spread through the apartment. Bystanders urged her to jump and helped break her fall. A delivery worker who was passing by stopped and assisted in rescuing her.
“I saw the elderly woman shouting ‘help, help’ and stopped with my motorcycle,” the delivery worker said. “I told her, ‘Jump, I’ll catch you.’ Another young man came to help me, and together we caught her.”
The woman was taken to a hospital with breathing difficulties but was later treated and discharged. Her 80-year-old husband escaped using an external staircase at the back of the building and was also taken to hospital with a leg injury. He was later discharged.
