A 7-year-old boy who fell from a 14th-floor apartment balcony in Daegu survived with only scrapes after landing first in a tree in a garden bed below.
The boy, a first-grade elementary school student, fell from the balcony of an apartment in Daegu's Suseong District at about 3:55 p.m. the previous day, the Daegu Fire Headquarters said on the 26th.
The fall could have been far more serious, but the boy struck a tree in the garden bed before hitting the ground, leaving him with only abrasions, according to the fire agency.
An investigation found that the boy lost his balance while looking outside from the balcony.
Park Yoo-seop, a fire lieutenant with the Daegu Fire Headquarters who was off duty at the time, was spending time with his own children near the scene when he heard a thud and immediately ran toward it.
After witnessing the scene, Park called 119, the country's emergency number, and began administering first aid to the boy.
Park kept the boy calm until paramedics arrived and contacted the boy's guardian to explain what had happened.
"I was very startled myself, but as a parent raising children, my first thought was how frightened and scared the child must have been," Park said.
"I thought the most important thing was to reassure him, so I kept talking to him and monitoring his condition," he said. "Later I heard from the child's parents that he was badly shaken but all right."
