Woman leaps from 11th-floor ledge into firefighter’s arms as Berlin high-rise burns

GermanyWoman leaps from 11th-floor ledge into firefighter’s arms as Berlin high-rise burnsVideo captured the moment a woman jumped two stories down into the arms of a firefighter in the basket of a turntable ladder in the Friday morning blaze. Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00Police at the scene of a fire in a high-rise apartment building in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin on Friday.Christophe Gateau / dpa/picture alliance via Getty ImagesShareAdd to GoogleAug. 16, 2026, 4:44 PM EDTBy Marlene LenthangAs a furious blaze raged inside a high-rise apartment building in Berlin, one woman was rescued by scaling the building’s exterior and taking a terrifying leap more than two stories down to safety.The fire erupted in a 18-story residential high-rise building in the German capital’s Friedrichshain neighborhood around 6:30 a.m. Friday, The Associated Press reported.The blaze started in an apartment on the 11th floor and spread to the apartment above it, with flames shooting from several windows and thick, black smoke pluming from the building, Berlin police said.Authorities described the response as “especially strenuous and requiring a significant number of personnel” given the number of people affected and the scale of the fire.Christophe Gateau / dpa/picture alliance via Getty ImagesThe dramatic rescue, captured on video, shows a woman in sweatpants scaling the exterior of an 11th floor apartment, edging perilously along a window ledge as giant orange flames and black smoke billow from the apartment beside her.Two floors below her outside, a firefighter is seen in the basket of a turntable ladder used for elevated rescues. She spends several tense minutes trying to climb down to the apartment below, but can’t find footing. Finally, she lets go of the ledge and takes a heart-stopping leap, falling into a rescue basket held by the firefighter, who catches her.Police said the woman, who was not identified, jumped roughly two floors down into the b...