Florida man uses cast to break window, saves elderly woman from fire

Credit: Ian Forsyth

Credit: Ian Forsyth

A Florida man used a cast on his arm to break a window to save an elderly woman who was trapped in her house when it caught fire from a candle, WSVN reported.

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Altavious Powell was able to remove 93-year-old Maria Cabral from her Miami Gardens home, the television station reported.

Cabral usually lights a candle each night in the corner of her home. When she lit a candle Monday night, the flame caught onto a wall and setting the home on fire, WSVN reported.

Powell, 27, who lives across the street from Cabral, saw the flames and broke the window with his cast and a plastic chair to enter the home, the television station reported. He found Cabral standing in a hallway and hustled her out of harm’s way.

"I broke this window right here. I just hit it with my cast," Powell told WSVN. "Yeah, I smashed a window with it.

“I said, ‘Mommy, mommy, where you at?’ And she said, ‘I’m right here.’ She was right here, like standing on the wall, so I just grabbed her with one arm. She looked up at me, she just said, ‘Thank you.'”

Cabral was taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation and continues to recover. Her family said she is going to be all right, WSVN reported.

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