NEW YORK - People were just beginning their day, when a building — being demolished — collapsed Thursday in Manhattan, trapping five.
An eyewitness says, “Boom! The scaffolds fell, and all the debris fell on the people.”
Among them, 56-year-old Brunilda Tirado, one of thousands of nannies on the city's Upper West Side. She was taking a morning stroll with 7-month old Abigail.
Just seconds before, Tirado and baby were in a store. She pushed the stroller outside and made a right turn, when suddenly, the building next door came crashing down on her and the baby. Tirado lost control of the stroller with the baby inside. Her desperate cries were heard by Jeff Rosenthal.
“She was screaming for her baby,” recalls Rosenthal, “So we started looking for her baby. But at that point two paramedics showed up [and] pulled the baby away.”
“Initially,” says paramedic Michael Blecker, “[the baby] was unconscious, not breathing. She did have a heart rate, but she was not at all with it.”
Paramedics were able to revive baby Abigail on the way to the hospital.
But they give part of the credit to the stroller she was in — the $600 Mountain Buggy Urban Double Stroller, to be exact. It helped save her life.
Paramedic Jesus Palacious explains, “The stroller has a little pocket, you know, where the child sits. So I guess all the debris fell on top of the stroller.”
Baby Abigail is recovering at a New York hospital, along with her devoted nanny, who underwent surgery for a broken leg and arm. Both are newfound celebrities in this city. Even New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg paid them a visit.
“I held the baby,” says Bloomberg, “And it ‘oohed’ and ‘ahhed’ and the baby smiled a lot. And I said to the mother, ‘This does not look like an injured baby.’”
It was an extraordinary walk for all involved, including that life-saving stroller. Thursday a voluntary recall was issued for a handle that can crack.