A heartbreaking tragedy took place at the end of August in the village of Yurtsovo near Yegoryevsk, writes AIF. At about eight o'clock in the evening, four friends Kirill Petukhov, Nikita Kazak, Ivan Svirin and Ivan Borisov were walking on the street and heard screams. Flames were blazing on the upper floors of the five-storey building. The fire engulfed several apartments, confused residents stood on the street.
"A woman was running in the street and shouting that she had dogs in her apartment. We're after her. There was a lot of smoke in the entrance, but we went up to the fourth floor, there were flames and smoke everywhere, almost nothing was visible. The woman was going to run into the burning apartment, but we stopped her, said that we would do everything ourselves. There were no dogs in sight inside, not with flashlights or anything," Kirill Petukhov says.
According to Nikita Kazak's friend, the guys found Jack Russell's first half-breed dog quickly, then they found a small Pekingese on the balcony. Along the chain, the guys began to pass the tailed ones to each other and then gave them to the hostess. But the third dog could not be found for several minutes, these minutes dragged on like hours in conditions of open fire and heavy smoke.
"The third dog was the hardest to find. We searched for her for five or six minutes, she hid somewhere under the sofa," Nikita continues. - Kirill and I started to pull her out, she bit us, bit Vanya, but we managed, pulled her out and gave her to the owner."
But the guys did not stop there, they began to take everyone they met out of the entrance. And they helped put out the flames as much as they could. Residents of other apartments handed us buckets of water, we went into the burning apartment and poured these buckets onto the flames.
Smoke was also pouring out of the windows of another apartment on the fourth floor, and children were crowding on the balcony, holding out their hands and shouting for help. The locals knew that a large family lived there. The door to the burning apartment was open. Flames were coming out of the kitchen. But the guys rushed there without looking back. According to them, it was necessary to navigate by touch.
"There was no fear," Nikita recalls. - The thought of saving the children was just beating in my head. We found the girl. Kirill grabbed her and carried her outside. A pensioner was calling for help in the next apartment. I helped her get outside and ran under the balcony, where the children's screams were still coming from."
The mother and the kids, of whom the oldest was an 11-year-old boy, climbed out onto the balcony. Suddenly, a woman pregnant with her ninth child jumped over the railing in an attempt to escape. Three babies jumped after the mother - they all crashed. The older boy restrained the others, did not let them jump after him to certain death.
"He was standing on the balcony, holding the baby above his head," Nikita recalls. - And threw it to me. I got it."
According to the guys, when the fire started, the father of eight children jumped out of the apartment in his underwear and ran around the yard screaming for help.
After the fire, the teenagers were taken to the hospital, the guys inhaled carbon monoxide heavily. Ivan Borisov suffered the most. But now the health of the guys is no longer in danger.
The 15-year-old boys graduated from Yurtsovo school No. 8. It is noteworthy that two friends, Nikita and Kirill, are now studying at the college of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and are preparing to become professional rescuers.
Photos of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia in the Moscow region and from the personal archive of the Petukhov, Kazak, Svirin, Borisov families.