Skip to content

Ad Disclosure

Retired U.S. Marine, former HS football player catches 3-year-old child dropped from burning building

Dustin Schutte

By Dustin Schutte

Published:

The heroic moment from a retired U.S. Marine and former high school football wide receiver is going viral.

On July 3, Phillip Blanks sprung into action when he noticed flames coming out of the third floor of an apartment building in Phoenix. When he saw an individual on the ground who was calling for a 3-year-old child to be dropped down to safety was not standing in the right position, Blanks sprinted to catch the child.

Blanks dove to catch the 3-year-old child. Below is the video of the heroic act:

“People were screaming ‘there are kids up there’ and to throw the kids down,” Blanks told WWMT. “I saw another guy was standing there ready to catch the boy, but he didn’t look like he was going to do it, so I stepped in front of him. The way I caught him damaged his foot, but the most important thing is his head was safe.”

Blanks was a high school football wide receiver and linebacker for four years at Kalamazoo Central in Michigan.

“Ultimately, this is my job,” Blanks said, according to MLive.com. “It was all fast, it was a blur. It was tunnel vision as I was running. I didn’t see anything but the baby.”

The 3-year-old boy and his 8-year-old sister were critically injured. The mother did not survive the fire.

Blanks said he wants to “track those two children and their father down, and to help them as much as I can.”

Dustin Schutte

Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB