They absolutely don’t want to call themselves heroes. Buurmen Cor de Jong (62) and Ruben Gerritsma (34) brought an older disabled man from a burning house in Breda. The two struck the windows. “The whole table was already on fire,” Cor knows.
Still impressed, the local residents look at the damage to the Verbeetenstraat. Ruben and Cor were outside at the time of the fire. They heard a fire alarm. “We still saw him inside! He is very difficult to walk.”
First the men tried to kick the door. “That didn’t work. We just smashed the windows,” says Cor sober. Then they were able to pull him out. “The two of us took him under the arms and then the house soon stood in light.”
The victim is 78 years old and has been living there all his life. Everything is burned inside. “He was of course a bit overstrained. He also realized that he could not come back here and the house was his lust and his life,” Cor said full of compassion.
It seems that the old man has caused the fire himself. “He told himself that he was smoking a cigarette. That probably fell on the table and started. It is very sad.”
Local residents who have seen Cor and Ruben the man save will receive a redeeming phone call on Saturday afternoon. “He is doing well! They are just calling from the hospital,” shouts a street dweller relieved. Cor adds: “This weekend he can enter a hotel.”
“We do our civil obligation!”
“We take care of each other here,” says Cor about the street, who in the Heuvel and Haagpoort neighborhoods. “It’s a sweet man. We sometimes got food for him. He always likes chicken”, Cor is shining.
“We all think he can’t go back to this house. As soon as we know where he is, we all go to him.” Noble? “We do our civil obligation!”
