Just Doing His Job, Says Firefighter Who Caught Boy Dropped Three Floors

Keywords:
<p>Lt. Glenn McGillivray, Boston firefighter.</p>...

As flames engulfed a Roxbury, Mass., apartment house early this morning, Judith Lamb desperately held her young grandson out a window. She was shielding him fire and smoke.

That's when Boston Fire Department Lt. Glenn McGillivray "reached his arms out," the Boston Globe reports.

"I knew she wouldn't be able to hold him until we got help, so [she] dropped him, and I caught him in my arms from the third floor," McGillivray told the newspaper. "Thank God I caught him. I've never had to do that before, and I hope I never have to do it again." The Globe says young Xavier is 6-years-old.

McGillivray tells WHDH-TV that he's not a hero. "It's the job," he says.

About 75 people are now homeless because of the fire. One resident of the apartment building has been arrested. "Police said a preliminary investigation suggested the fire may have been the result of a failed suicide attempt," the Globe reports.

No one was killed. About a dozen people were injured. Firefighters had to bring many residents out via ladders.

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